Batman Evolution
by L-Dog Z
Summary: Chapter 3: When asked about an old case by Cass, Oracle reminisces about the time Bruce first outsmarted by a criminal, a thief known only as 'The Cat' that the FBI have been failing time and again to capture, who, coincidentally, happens to be the main suspect in a recent robbery.
1. Who is the Bat?

Hi, to those who are reading this after reading any of my other stories, I know, do I just make up a new story every time I feel bored? Well, the answer is yes, I do, but that's not the reason for this. To those knew to me, welcome new readers! I've been writing an X-Men Evolution based fic for a good few years now, and as of about a year I've expanded this to include a whole new Marvel Universe, split into stories. But, then I got ideas for a DC universe story using a similar concept, but you can read more of that In the Justice League section under Justice League Evolution.

Basically, the idea is built of two things: If I could Evolution-ize Batman and such, basically an amalgamation of the best bits of the series but from a younger perspective, namely with quite a bit of focus on younger and warmer faces like Dick, Tim, Cass, Steph, etc, but without demoting Batman to a supporting role, and if I could write Batman. I toyed with different ideas on how to do it, but now I've settled on a way that means people could just read it with any basic knowledge on the characters, would fit the comics, and wouldn't require chapters of my own ideas for their origins, since I was going to try that and realized it would take forever. Instead, its going to be simple: Stories get told, but when relevant, origins are brought up and flashed back to, like things like Father's Day flashing back to Dick's origin and adoption, Jason's birthday flashing back to his time as Robin and eventual death, certain villains escaping results in either their origin or the origin of one of the members with a closer tie to them, stuff like that.

Also, it's going to be darker than stuff I usually write. Not like, Frank Miller kinda so-dark-it-actually-becomes-narmy-and-quite-funny type of dark, more like CSI/Criminal Minds kinda dark. The villains and such are terrible, but the heroes are clearly heroic, if occasionally stoic, and like a police procedural with superhero like vigilantes. You know, like the kind of show I'd love to see.

Secondly, when Joker or a similarly disturbed individual makes a joke, remember that, while I have an appreciation for dark humour myself, it's not always something I myself find funny, more what they would. Stuff like, Joker making dead baby jokes or something that level, I find it disturbing, he'd find it hilarious. I don't think I need to point this out, but last time I had a villain make a joke I didn't find funny, I was slightly worried if someone would think that's what I find funny, so I'd like to make that clear.

Thirdly, this is 'Urban Legend' Batman, only Gotham's finest and the villains know Batman is real, everyone else thinks he and co are urban legends and he's not often seen in public. Because of that, he's not a big part of the Justice League, which allows me to separate him from there a bit more.

And, finally, while something's will be different, there will be a good few mythology gags.

Anyway, time to begin:

...

'_Bruce.'_

He heard a whisper, before another jolt of pain hit his body, shocking him back out of his dying dream before being knocked to the floor by a large pain from his back. A crumpled form lies on the floor of the warehouse, chained to the floor as others around, dressed like demonic clowns. Standing above him is a laughing lunatic with pale white skin and green hair, which is emphasized with his use of clown-like make up and his large Glasgow smile, and a dirty and ripped purple pinstripe suit. He hits the figure on the floor once more with a metal cattle prod, shocking him once more, though the figure doesn't allow himself to chance to scream.

He's hit once more, from a comically large blood stained hammer, as its holder swings once more with all her might. A young woman with a childish glee on her face behind her white make up and raccoon like eye shadow, wearing a torn and gothic styled full body harlequin suit.

"Strike Two!" She yells happily, getting ready to swing again.

'_Bruce, darling, hurry up._'

Around the scene lies the figures of his friends and family, equally beaten and hurt, all chained together.

'_Don't rush him, Martha, he'll catch up when he can._'

Another shock, and another hit, bouncing the man across the floor, showing his grey and black Kevlar armour, his black cape and bat-like cowl, his spiky, talon holding gloves, and his bat like helm.

"Come on Batsy, just scream, just scream a little. Do it for me. Come on, do it for me." The monster clown almost begs in a twitchy manner, zapping him repeatedly.

'_Did you enjoy the play Bruce?_'

"Come on, Batty, crack. Crack for me, come on, for me, just crack. Just crack a little."

'_Bruce, you can't be still mad about your presents. We'll get you the toy you wanted next week, just don't be so mad._'

"Come on, Crack for Pudin' would ya?" The girl in the harlequin costume demands, hitting him with the large hammer.

'_Stop where you are! Hand over your wallet, and your jewellery.'_

"Come on, just a tear, just a yelp, just something. Don't keep me hanging Batsy, or I'll keep your family hanging by their necks." The clown steps away, grabbing the youngest boy of his family by the chain around his neck, unhooking it from where it is and throwing it over a beam above, pulling down to lift him to his feet as he cringes with pain. Every second or two, he pulls on the chain, pulling him briefly in the air.

'_Please, there's no need to be violent. Here, just take my wallet and leave my family alone._'

"Look at him dance, Batman, Look at him, he's like a puppet. Come on, just give me a sign that you're ready to quit. I already took one son from you, I can take another, just as easy! Or, I could take two or three." He throws the cattle prod to his female counterpart, who tosses him a double barrel shotgun in its place, to which he loads and aims at his family. "Who'd you care about the most? Huh? The oldest son?" He points towards the oldest, a blue suited young man. "The youngest daughter?" He moves it towards a black armoured girl. "Maybe it's the runt who you care about the most." He shifts it to the dark blue and eggplant coloured girl. "Or maybe its your replacement child. Huh? Is it them? I like them, maybe when this is done I'll let him stay alive, tell everyone else how I broke the bat."

'_No, don't!_'

"Come on, why won't you answer me? What makes you so like this? What makes you the silent knight? Tell me, what makes you Batman? What made you who you are?"

_A gunshot is heard, drawing two screams before its followed by two more, silencing the woman crying for her husband._

**Who is the Bat?**

A small child, a nine year old boy, cries at the side of his dead parents on the cold, snow covered alleyway. Joe Chill, a man's who name becomes surprisingly fitting tonight, stands above the young Bruce Wayne, as the dead Martha and Thomas Wayne lie, cold as the snow, before his feet. He clutches his steal, and his piece, aiming at the child.

"Stop screaming kid! Stop, you're ghonna attract attention!" He tries to scare the child, but after what he saw, nothing could scare him now. He's lost his family, he's lost his childhood. He waves his gun at him once more, before a voice draws his attention.

"Hey! Police!" An off-duty officer with light brown hair yells while running into the alleyway after hearing the shots, holding his own weapon and his badge. Chill turns back, taking a warning shot at the officer as he curses, before tossing the weapon and running out the other end of the alley.

Young Police Detective James Gordon begins to chase after him, but stops by the side of the small child, stepping down to his level and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, kid, its going to be alright." Gordon tries to tell him, but the child doesn't respond. How can any child respond to anyone after seeing what young Bruce Wayne just witnessed?

As Gordon turns away to call for an ambulance and a squad car, Bruce continues to stare at the cold remains of his parents. It's all his fault. He was the one who was angry about not getting what he wanted for Christmas, it was his fault they came to see this film, just to please his bratty behaviour. It was him who got scared by that one scene even though he's seen it millions of times, and that made them leave early. It was him who was tired, making them take the shortcut through the alley. It was all his fault, that's all he can think as the life of Bruce Wayne slips from his eyes, leaving the empty void of misery, despair, anger, and guilt. Bruce Wayne died in that alley alongside his parents, and all that's left are the cold eyes, not the eyes of a child, but the eyes, of a bat.

...

Gotham University, nine years later. Bruce Wayne, having passed high school with Straight As but without befriending a single child, sits alone in his university hall room, before all the other new students. This isn't the place he wanted to be, he wanted to be in the police academy, studying that so he could find justice, but he was rejected. Commissioner Leob didn't want someone like Wayne on the force, he'd be too motivated to enforcing laws that he would likely try to do something about Leob's corruption, and he couldn't just have the golden boy of Gotham killed to cover his tracks, could he? So, with nothing else to do, Bruce is stuck on a three year course, studying applied science and psychology.

"...And, last on the register, Bruce Wayne?" The tutor calls, looking up to spot Bruce, sitting two seats away from everyone, scowling in his ever present way. His black hair, unkempt, hangs over the top of his forehead, making him look depressed, angry. It fits him perfectly. "Can you tell the group something about yourself?"

The class turns to look at him, all staring intently and waiting for him to say something.

"I'm Bruce Wayne." He starts. "And I don't like any of you."

A few pull weird faces, some turn away, while one young man merely laughs a little, amused by that response.

"Well, Mister Wayne, that's...an unusual response. Now, we're going to split up into pairs, and you can go and explore the campus, get to know your new environment." The tutor continues, as the group of young adults get to their feet, scattering about and forming pairs. The student who laughed at Bruce's answer, who happens to be Bruce's roommate and law student Harvey Dent, walks towards the supposed prince of Gotham, a friendly face on his head.

"Well, you sure know how to establish who you are, don't ya Wayne?" He says to him, still smirking a little. "Come on, nobody else is going to pair with you so I guess you're stuck with me."

The two walk outside, with Harvey pursuing a one sided conversation.

"...Must be hard though, losing your parents so horribly." Harvey comments to him, trying to get him to say something.

"It is, especially when people bring it up."

"Oh, sorry, just, from a legal stand point, it was a horrible event. You know, since then, morale's been down and corruption in law enforcement's been up. People basically just gave up hope when your parents died."

"I'm not surprised."

"Its a fear thing. Everybody loved your parents. They were big philanthropists, did a lot of charity work, tried to restore a lot of Gotham's architecture and work on cheap and easy travel and housing and did a lot for employment in the city. Nobody would ever expect them to die, and then some loser comes along and...did they ever catch the guy?"

"Nope." He replies simply, walking a step faster.

"Oh, sorry. But, like I was saying, they died in a completely random mugging and nobody saw it coming. It was, quite honesty, a blow to the heartstrings for a lot of people. Suddenly, anyone could be killed at any time from random crime, and it made everyone scared. Then, bozos like Falcone, Maroni, Cobblepott, and anybody else feeling lucky in town go about shaking and threatening people when they're weak, and cops start taking payment from them to avoid being killed for being against them, and you have this, cycle of fear. Crime happens, people get scared, those monsters take advantage of people's fear, more crime happens, more people gets scared, lather, rinse, repeat. Its a downward spiral and its not helped by the fact the commissioner's corrupt and the DA's an idiot."

"Yeah, I noticed all that." Bruce continues to mutter, getting slightly annoyed by how much Dent talks.

"You know what they need, someone to flip it around, put the power back in the hands of the people. They need some kind of super cop or something, like those guys in the old TV serials, the Justice Society. They need people like that to come in and take Falcone and co down, you know, put fear into them."

"Like, a defender of the night." Bruce voices aloud.

"Exactly, some kind of hero." Harvey adds, nodding a little. From Harvey's point of view, it looks like Bruce is just humouring his hypothetical idea. To Bruce, however, this is the perfect idea. Bruce's thought trail is cut off, however, when he notices Harvey check his watch before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small bottle of tablets. Bruce tilts his head a little to read the label, noting that it says 'Risperdal'. Harvey notices Bruce looking at them, and replaces them as soon as he can. "Don't worry about that, just something I need to take every twelve hours, just some medical stuff. Anyway, let's talk about something less personal than medical conditions and dead parents. Did you catch the Redsocks game last week?"

...

About eight or nine months later.

"...You really didn't want to keep rooming with me, did you?" Harvey jokes. Its been just short of a year since their induction day, and even though it was supposed to be a three year course, Bruce did all he could to finish early, from night classes to taking the tests early and doing all the coursework ahead of deadline. Turns out that Bruce is lucky, he has a photographic memory, something a considerably rarer thing than most realize. Makes passing exams a whole lot easier when you've memorized the entire periodic table and every last little number on it, and every characteristic of every element.

"Just wanted to get things over with as soon as possible." The billionaire son replies as the two walk through the halls of Wayne's home. He's cut his hair, started to dress more casually, and began acting like a sane, normal human being. But, all just to cover up his plan.

"So, how long are you going for?" Harvey asks, as Bruce picks up two large suitcases from his room as they stop outside it, leaving with them in his hand. As of the last month, Bruce has been planning to get away for a while, to continue studying, though more than just science and human behaviour.

"A couple of years at most. You know, just to see the world, learn some things." He replies, as an older man takes his bags from him, his loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, former MI5 agent during the Dhofar Rebellion-turned household butler for the Wayne Family, after a long and extensive list of career changes.

"Well, don't be a stranger, send postcards everywhere you go. Don't want Gotham's golden boy to forget where he's from."

"Trust me, I tried." He replies, resulting in a small laugh.

"Well, I'll see you when you get back." Harvey finishes, patting him on his back as the two load the rest of his bags into his car. "And I mean it about the postcards. Don't try getting rid of me."

"Don't worry, I couldn't if I tried. I'll see you when I get back Harv." He replies, patting his friend on his back as they part ways. Harvey gets into his own car, As Bruce sits in the back of his dad's old Royce, with Alfred stepping in front.

"The Airport sir?"

"Of course." He replies, and within a second, Alfred's pulling out of the manor gates, driving down to the airport.

"So, what motivated your decision to leave Gotham if you don't mind me asking sir?" Alfred asks as they continue driving.

"I want to learn some things in this world. Things Gotham University doesn't teach." He replies, his demeanour becoming less sociable than it was around Harvey.

"So, where's your first stop?"

"Ohio. There's a training camp run by former Navy SEALS that can get me started."

"Then sir?"

"Then, its everywhere else in the world."

"You sure about this plan of yours? I mean no offense sir, but it sounds bloody insane. I mean, you're going to travel the world to learn everything you can just to find the man who killed your parents?"

"Not just him Alfred, all of them. I want to learn everything I can about this, and make myself the perfect soldier against crime."

"But, don't forget, you are just one man sir, you're not an army."

"All it would take is just one man to make a difference. Gotham's problem is fear. Its tipped the scales towards the criminals of Gotham, putting the power in their hands. One man could come in and make a difference, putting fear into the hearts of the criminals instead. If you put fear into them, it'll take it away from the innocent people in Gotham. And you know what happens when you take away fear?"

"What sir?"

"You get hope. That's what I want to do Alfred. I want to inspire people, bring hope back to Gotham, just like my parents."

"Yeah, 'cept your parents didn't start by flying across the world to get lessons on how to crack skulls together." Alfred replies as they begin to approach the airport.

Once loaded onto a plane, Bruce gets ready to leave, but turns back to Alfred first.

"Alfred, while I'm gone, I'm leaving the house and fortune to you. I want you to look after my families possessions while I'm gone."

"Already planned on doing sir. Don't worry, I'll keep your armchair warm until you get back." He replies, laughing lightly as he does so. An honest smile comes to Bruce's face, and with a light nod, they bid their goodbyes.

...

Navy SEAL Training in Ohio followed by kickboxing in Texas. SAS level workouts in Manchester and technical wrestling in Yorkshire. Ninjitsu in Kyoko and Judo just after that, as well as any other fighting style for any other small town he comes across, Bruce studies the different martial arts of the world, perfecting them quickly; a photographic memory combined with being in extremely great shape allows one to easily do so. Within the first year of his travels, he's already learnt enough to fight fifty men and win, and not only that. He's learnt escapism, and parkour, profiling and forensic reconstruction, analytical skills, surveillance, anything and everything that will help. And now, he's seeking training in hair identification.

Bruce sits on a beach in Dubai, minding his own business while watching everyone around him having fun. That's a thing, fun. He'll have to remember how normal people do that so he can fake it in the future. As he watches with as little subtlety as a moth in some grass, someone spots him by the beach, approaching him with the stealth of a ninja. Literally, in fact. Of all the skills he acquired, he's oblivious to the figure approaching him, moving closer, drawing an object from their silhouette as they arrive to his side without his knowledge, and...

"Drink?" The figure offers him, holding a glass to him as she interrupts his trail of thought.

"Excuse me?" He questions, confused on how they approached him without his knowledge.

"Do you want a drink?" She asks again, motioning to one of the two glasses of the beverage she has.

"Oh, sorry, I don't drink." He replies, though takes a second to note her appearance. A tall woman, about his size despite his own great height, with lightly tanned skin and dark brown hair, wearing a light summer dress. She looks like any average woman. She's anything but.

"No problem. Non-alcoholic." She holds it out again, and he takes it a sips a little. Indeed, no alcohol, or any possible drugs that she could have slipped into it. "I understand. Alcohol is so debilitating to the brain, is it not?"

"Yeah, makes it harder to concentrate." He replies simply, returning to analysing those around him.

"I'm Talia, by the way. Talia Al Ghul." She holds out a hand for him, to which he smiles lightly.

"Adams, West Adams." He takes her hand, giving the current fake name he's using.

"So, mister Adams, what brings you to Dubai?" She sits down next to him, making light conversation.

Above the two, another individual watches, one with an aged appearance, but that of a man in his prime. His eyes however look far more harrowed than any man under the age of fifty, or even seventy or eighty. Dark brown hair and a short beard, he dons dark green robes like that of a well-financed warrior of ages, while his arms hold a unique item. On his forearms are two metal plates covering the outer side, with three sharp blades attached, looking like the tips of a sword. He holds an arm up, twisting his knuckle to make a signal, summoning two others, dressed in black robes that resemble that of a ninja. He holds the arm out, pointing towards Bruce Wayne.

"That man. Find out everything you can on who he is." He commands to his followers, who nod to him and obey.

"Yes, great Ra's Al Ghul. It will be our main priority."

...

Two weeks later, and Bruce has settled into a nice, if temporary, routine. Wake up early in his hotel room, head down to a local training spot, work out for two hours in secret, return to the hotel and wait for Talia to join him. It was one of these days that he would meet one man who would change his life, forever.

Its 6:25 AM on a Saturday, and Bruce is returning to his Hotel, slipping inside through the balcony. He slowly steps inside the hotel room, about to get back into his bed when he realizes something, Talia's not there.

"Impressive skills, Mister Wayne, though you could work on your balance. And you make just a little too much sound with each foot step."

Bruce turns around, startled at this to see a man standing opposite him, the leader of the assassins, Ra's Al Ghul.

"Uh, sorry, you appear to have mistaken me for someone else." Bruce replies, processing the scene for a second. It would take him three seconds to get back out the window, where he can leap off into the pool. The hotel door is open, he could make out into the hallway, the stairs are just down the hall. That would take, approximately five seconds at most.

"You're thinking of an escape route, aren't you?" They speak up, snapping his attention back. "Mister Wayne, I'm actually a little disappointed in you. You were dating my daughter as a cover and you didn't even think to check up on her background?"

"I'm not sure who you think I am, but I'd like it if you'd leave."

"You're a man with no past." He cuts him off once again. "West Adams? No birth records, no school records, no past. Of course, that's not your only identity, is it, Kevin Christian? Or do you proffer, Conroy Bale?" To add emphasis, he tosses two plastic cards, two drivers licenses, both identical save for the given name, each being the aforementioned aliases, and given hometown, even holding Bruce's photo. "Of course, how could people with no past afford such a lifestyle? Travelling across the world, paying for the training of those with less money but greater wisdom, it would all be quite costly. Now, who else could afford all this, other than the Prince of Gotham himself, Bruce Wayne." Finally, he tosses onto the small book, a yearbook of some kind that opens to show a photo of a science class working on a project, with Bruce Wayne standing right in the centre holding some kind of metal, with a headline on the side saying 'Body armour lighter than rubber and stronger than Kevlar, created by today's great minds'. "So, do you insist on taking this Cat and Mouse game further, or are you ready to listen to what I have to say?"

Bruce looks at each thing and, indeed, his cover has been compromised. But, by who?

"My name is Ra's Al Ghul, and I'm the leader of a very noble and well trained group of individuals, all with similar tragic back stories to you, and together, we can make you into something extraordinary."

"Hm, pleasure to meet you Mr Al Ghul." He replies, holding a hand out to shake the man's hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr Wayne."

...

The League of Shadows, an ancient organisation stretching as far back as the Crusades, potentially further even. Little to nothing is known about them, with their name never once being printed in a single history book, though its possible they may have allied with, or even started off as, the legendary Hashshashins, but this is but speculation by some of the current members. Located in a large and lost castle, built during ancient times and sustained by their current members, the League of Shadows has became somewhat infamous around neighbouring towns and clusters of people, and local governments have tried to find a way to move them just short of declaring war against them.

The only reason they don't is because they know they'd lose.

Bruce enters, flanked by Ra's and two of his agents, walking throughout the old fashioned, but highly advanced area. He passes a group of people, dressed identical to each other and fighting in an unusual style Bruce hasn't came across, before then passing a man with grey hair taking aim with a riffle, shooting at what appears to be a young girl, of Asian descent with shortly cropped hair and several scars, as she stands completely still, barely even breathing. He fires at her, causing Bruce's eye's to widen initially, until the girl, wearing what appears to be Kevlar gloves, suddenly darts to the side, reaching and literally catching the bullet with her bare hand.

"She's getting faster every day." Ra's notes as the assassin with the rifle stands to face him, nodding and bowing to him. "Bruce, I'd like you to meet David Cain, he's one of my top assassins, and he'll be one of your teachers."

"You're shooting at a girl." Bruce says aloud.

"Yeah, I noticed that, but thanks for the heads up." The gun totting assassin replies, before turning to the girl. "Cassandra, change gloves, I think we've moved past Rifle, time to test the shotgun round."

"Who are you people?" Bruce questions as Ra's begins to continue.

"We are protectors, Bruce. What we do is sacred, and needed for this world."

"You're vigilantes."

"Isn't that what you want?" He stops to look at Bruce for a second. "The world is dying, Mister Wayne. People know this, but most of them don't even _care_. What we're doing is needed in order to hold off this inevitability as long as we can, making sure certain, individuals, don't bring this event forward. You'll learn what we can tell you soon, but for now, I'll show you to your room. Later, we'll test your abilities."

...

"You've acquired an unusual skill set Mister Wayne." Ra's notes as Bruce, wearing the same black ninja-like attire of the other assassins, stands inside a ring on the floor. He looks at his arms, noting the unusual braces attached to his forearms, including the three short blades in a single row going down the middle of each. He holds a stylized sword, with a long, curved blade, with the tip that resembles a hook of some kind. "You're capable of taking on ten men. You're able to remember the smallest details. You can lift twice your own size through nothing but your own will. You can ascend up rooftops with little help and escape from any scenario with little noise. And, you know how people's mind's work, despite being different. Impressive, really."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Bruce questions, looking at him with a slight glare.

"You, Mister Wayne, are an extraordinary person. You may not have had anything special about you in the beginning, but you certainly haven't let that stop you." He replies, drawing out his sword and taking a slash at him, prompting Bruce to block, pushing him back and taking a swing of his own. The older and more experienced fighter blocks it with the brace on his arms, catching the blade in between two of the blades and twisting, breaking it off. He moves forward, barging Bruce back and spinning, kicking him to the floor. "On your feet, take another sword, and try again."

Bruce picks himself up, taking another blade from the wall and returning, only to be swiftly defeated by Ra's once more.

"We have all day, Mr Wayne. I can keep it up as long as you can."

Bruce gets back up once more, taking another sword and trying again, and again, and again.

"You have spirit, I'd give you that." Ra's notes, before sheathing his sword and walking away.

"Hey! I'm not finished!" Bruce shouts, running at him, only for a figure to land in front of him, a female wearing the same outfit as the others, but with a mask over her head.

"Of course you haven't finished, we haven't even begun yet. You need to start off a little lower, so I'd suggest sparring with my second in command."

Bruce looks back at the female warrior, swinging at her with his sword. However, she bats the blade away with her hand, before striking his wrist to shatter his grip and finishing by back flipping, kicking him in the chin with her foot to knock him back. He rolls back but returns to his feet, running forward to strike once more, but she dodges, hitting him in the sides of his ribs, knocking him to the floor.

"Talia, you can stand down now. I think he's done for the day." Ra's orders, as Bruce looks up to see the woman removing her mask, revealing that, yes, its Talia underneath.

"Surprised, _Bruce_?" She asks, holding a hand out to help him up.

"Stunned, mostly." He replies, taking her hand and getting to his feet. "At least I know why you never talked about your dad."

...

_Two months later._

Two black garbed assassins run through the large home of the League of Shadows, covered head to toe in dark black armour with braces on their arms holding two to three blades. One leaps up into the air, flying into the sky and gripping a long rope, using it to swing down to safety as the other follows, leaping onto a wall opposite and sliding down, using the blades on their arm to slow their descent.

The first assassin slides through a window, slipping inside one of the towers and hitting two other assassins in the head, while the other enters from a different floor and climbs up a wall, scurrying on the ceiling as he sneaks past two. He turns past a wall, waiting until another patrolling assassin is just underneath him, before dropping down and grabbing them around the throat, choking them unconscious before leaving them. When the two other assassins spot him, the second assassin drops onto them, hitting them against the floor hard enough to incapacitate them.

The first assassin drops into a room, as two others stand guard. They spot them and move to attack, only to be dispatched of with two strikes with their sword, before the assassin moves to Ra's, sitting calmly as they approach, ready to place their sword to his neck, only for the second assassin to lunge in from the side. They quickly bat the sword from their hand and elbow them in the ribs to push them back before, in one swift move, the place their own sword against the first assassin's neck and hold the sword he knocked from their hand to Ra's' throat, holding them both in his grasp.

Ra's begins to clap, prompting the assassin to redraw the swords, sliding on into his holster and pass the other back to the assassin before removing the mask, revealing to be the slightly less shaven and longer haired face of Bruce Wayne, while the other assassin removes their own mask, revealing to be Talia.

"Impressive. In two months you went from the new fish in the pond, to the shark closing in on its meal. Impressive." Ra's congratulates him while getting up and moving to the entrance of the room.

"He's right you know." Talia says to Bruce as he's about to follow Ra's. "You're the fastest learner we've had. You should be proud."

"Not yet." He replies, brushing past her to leave, their hands stroking against the other's as they do so.

"Come along Bruce, your final test is almost complete." Ra's calls, prompting Bruce to hurry up.

Bruce follows Ra's closely, as they head down the many halls. He hears a gun shot, and instantly moves out of the way as young Cassandra flies into the air, catching the sniper bullet that nearly hit his head.

"Mind being faster next time?" He asks the young girl, but she stays silent, handing him the bullet and walking off. "You've really messed that kid up."

"Trust me, she's better off with me than with her mom." David Cain replies, patting him on the shoulder as he walks past.

"Oh, and David?" Bruce calls his attention, tossing him the bullet back. "Try something faster next time."

"I said come along Bruce." Ra's calls, and Bruce hurries to catch up to his sensei.

Bruce follows Ra's as they walk over a long balcony, overlooking the main hall. In the centre is a cage, holding a man in what looks like a modern day templar uniform.

"You see the prisoner?" Ra's asks him, resulting in a nod from Bruce. "You know the details?"

"The rival assassin. I took him down myself." He replies, glancing at the assassin.

"Anything else?" He turns to Bruce, who looks up to his sensei briefly, then back at the assassin. "Remember your previous training, and what we taught you. Analyse the way he's sitting, what does that tell you."

"He's well trained, blinks rarely and breathes slowly. He's conflicted, suffering from some kind of mental disorder, likely either Schizophrenia or Dissociative Personality Disorder, he twitches every so often and appears to act as if someone's talking to him. He has a strong religious belief, he's often stroking a crucifix around of his neck when stressed."

"Correct, correct, and correct." Ra's finishes, looking down on the prisoner. "You're skills in other fields are impressive, you could make a talented detective. His name is Ludovic Valley, an originator from Gotham just like yourself; he's the current lead assassin of the Church of St Dumas, one of our many rivals. They originated during the later days of the Crusades, and have been trying to purify the world ever since."

"So, they're just like us?"

"Not even close." Ra's turns away, resulting in the younger man hurrying to catch up to him. "Truth be told, I hold the Church of St Dumas in nothing but contempt. Any similarities you may see are purely coincidental. We are revolutionaries, recruiting the best the world has to offer, they are fascists who rely on hypnosis, drugs, and brain washing to gather more members to their cause. They are nothing but war criminals, Bruce, and tomorrow, Ludovic Valley will pay for his crimes."

"How? You going to turn him over to some authorities?" Bruce questions, to which Ra's laughs slightly.

"Bruce, even as my most successful apprentice, you're still so naive." Ra's draws out his sword, tossing it to Bruce. "No, we're not going to turn him over to incompetent law enforcement officers or corrupt fascists, as I've told you previously, Bruce, the world is dying, and we need to stop it."

"By killing people already imprisoned?" Bruce begins to appear angry at this, causing Ra's to sigh.

"Is there really any better solution?"

"There's thousands. No matter what problem, no matter what crime, murder is never the solution."

Ra's merely laughs at that.

"What about the man who killed your parents? Would you not want to kill him?" Bruce grows silent at that, as Ra's walks away.

"Tomorrow at dawn I expect you to be here, and bring that sword. You'll need it."

"_I'll_ need it?"

"Of course, how else would you be able to execute him?"

Bruce looks down at the sword in his arm, and realizes what's going on. He made a mistake.

...

As the sun begins to rise, as do the League of Shadows, their members slowly waking up.

Bruce rises slowly, unwilling to get the day started, knowing what's happening. Relenting, he pulls himself from the covers, and from the bed.

"Beloved?" Talia speaks to him as she too rises from the bed, looking at him. "You're never this slow at getting up. Something troubling you?"

"Something." Bruce replies as he gets from the bed, stretching before slipping on the bottom half of his Ninja outfit to give himself some dignity. "When my parents died, I swore to myself I'd never take a life in cold blood, no matter how deserving. Today, I'm supposed to break that promise, and I'm not sure if I have a choice."

"Bruce, you can't be so naive." She exhales loudly, lifting herself from the bed and putting on her own uniform. "What we do isn't murder, its justice."

"It's anything but justice Talia. We're becoming self elected executioners. This isn't what I signed up for."

"We're not becoming anything Bruce. We already are." She replies as she zips up her uniform. "The League of Shadows were created when the first civilization arose, Beloved, and we were there to burn it down when corruption took hold of it. What we do is necessary. You will learn that eventually."

"I didn't join this group to take lives Talia."

"Then why did you?"

"Because I needed to. We don't have to kill everyone Talia." Bruce insists while Talia slips the torso of his uniform onto him, helping him tighten the belt afterwards. "We could already fight five hundred people each and not resort to killing them, why do we have to be murderers? We shouldn't use the skills we have to hurt people, we should be using it to protect them."

"We could, but only in an ideal world. You know already Beloved, we live in anything but that. Now, come along, you don't want to be late."

Reluctantly, Bruce follows her, heading down to the main hall and finding himself in between two long rows of people, forming a walkway into the centre. He walks through it until he finds Ra's and the prisoner, the former chained up and unable to move. He holds the sword ready, his hand shaking slightly from this.

"Bruce, its time." Ra's announces, as he steps to the side, watching Bruce move towards the prisoner. He draws his sword, holding it at their head as his hand shakes slightly.

"Come on, just do it already." David Cain demands, heckling him on only to be silenced by Ra's' and Talia's resulting death glares.

"Any time you want, but preferably before next week Bruce." Ra's tells him, as Bruce continues to just hold the sword where it is, not moving it. He glances to Ra's, then Talia, and looks towards the others. He gazes down on the prisoner, and finds himself unable to do anything. "Bruce..."

Finally, he moves his hand back up to get ready to pull back down, and does so fast, stabbing it into the ground.

"No, I'm not doing this. I didn't sign up to become a murderer." He tells them, turning away from the prisoner. "This isn't right, I signed up to make the world a better place, not this. This isn't justice."

"David." Ra's calls, resulting in David Cain shooting the prisoner three times, third time in the head.

"No!"

"Bruce, you cannot keep being so naive. What we do is to make the world better. There is no justice other than us. We are the only people capable of deciding right from wrong, or what should and shouldn't be done." Ra's lectures him angrily, like a disappointed father scolding their son after they disobeyed them. "You will be part of us, or you will be in our way. Your choice now Bruce, what do you want to be here, realistic, or idealistic? What does the great Bruce Wayne, the golden prince of Gotham, want to be?"

Bruce looks up to him, then glances at the others, as they wait on his answer. They're all waiting, just getting ready to either welcome him, or destroy him. These people aren't the heroic figures they think they are, they're monsters. They're cynical, pessimistic, genocidal monsters.

And he won't be part of it.

"I'll be where I need to be." He grabs the sword from the ground and slices at Ra's, then kicks him as he blocks it. "Standing between you and your twisted dream."

David Cain takes aim at him, but Bruce dodges the bullet and tosses a throwing knife at his gun before darting away. He leaps up, hopping over some of the members by landing on their head and leaping off, before tossing a metal wire to a balcony and using it to swing out of the line of a throwing sword. He lands atop the balcony and rolls, as two more land right next to him as he gets up, followed by two more in front and another two behind him.

He spins around as one strikes, using his momentum to kick on in the head and hit the attempted attacker in the face with his elbow. He dodges a sword strike, punching the sword from the side and snapping the blade in half and head butting the one holding it. He swings both arms back, hitting an attacking enemy's cheekbones with both elbows and leaping into the air to kick another in the face. The last one stands still, drawing out a simple knife and moving to the side slowly, getting ready to strike only for Bruce to attack first, hitting him in the nose with his fist.

Several more lunge up, and Bruce runs, rolling and grabbing two belts of weapons from two of the knocked out League members and running forward, placing the belts around his own waist, above and bellow his own respective belt. He drops a smoke bomb, before dropping two more, creating a long row of smoke over the balcony. The two assassins run in blind, only to run straight into his swing kick and struck hard when they're down.

Ra's watches the smoke clear, spotting nothing left but a destroyed safety railing and two unconscious assassins. He sighs, disappointed in Bruce, and in their inability to stop him. He knew Bruce was better then them, but he can't really be good enough to take them all on.

Bruce darts back into his room, grabbing two bags and everything he calls his own. Once packed, he begins to leave out the window, only to stop when a click is heard and a metal ring is pressed against his temple.

"Stop, now." Talia instructs him, glaring at him like he committed some ultimate act of betrayal. "Don't do this to them Bruce, don't do this to us my Beloved."

"Talia, I have to leave." He tells her, looking to the side as he hears them coming. "This isn't what I want, its what I have to do. I'm not like them. I never was."

"You can be if you try." She tells him, gripping the weapon tighter as a tear drips from her eye. "You don't have to leave, you can stay with us. You don't understand what you leaving will do."

"I can't stay here, I can't do what they want me to do Talia, its not who I am." He replies, turning to face her. She grips the gun with both hands, but drops it soon.

"Why can't you accept the truth Bruce. You can't keep holding onto this promise you made yourself, you need to accept change." She lets the gun fall to the floor, as he lowers his bag.

"Talia...This isn't how it needs to be. People don't need to die to keep the world safer." He replies, his usual stoic outlook becoming sadness and heartache. "I can't be part of something that feels that way."

"You already are, you can't leave us. My father won't allow you to. Stay, please, for me." She tells him, gripping him by the shoulders of his uniform and holding him.

"I don't want to leave you." He holds her in his arms, tightening his eyes closed as he rests his forehead on her scalp. "But I can't stay with the others."

"I love you, Bruce, you can't do this." She closes her own eyes, stopping any more feelings that can escape.

"I have no choice." He begins to pull away, but she pulls him into a kiss, trying to stop him. He kisses her back, embracing her and allowing their emotions to be free, for just one minute.

They pull apart when they hear the others coming closer, and Talia wraps her arms around her body.

"Go. Just leave, before they kill you."

Bruce looks at her with sadness in his eye, grabbing his bags and stepping onto the window but stops to turn back to her.

"Come with me."

"What?" She questions him, as the two begin to return to their shells.

"Come with me, come back to Gotham. With me." He watches her as she almost accepts his offer.

"No. I can't. This is who I am, this is what I was born to be."

Bruce turns away. She couldn't convince him, he can't convince her.

"I will never forget you Talia." He tells her honestly, looking down at his escape route.

"I will always love you Bruce, you will always be in my heart." She turns away herself, trying to regain her composure.

"And I love you, beloved." He replies, and as they allow the moment to pass, he leaps from the window, landing on a lower balcony and running forward, leaping over the surrounding wall and landing on a pile of snow and ice, rolling down the mountain side for half a second before pulling himself to a stop.

By the time they found where he went, he was gone. Talia was left alone in the room they shared, sitting by herself as she digested what just happened, while remembering the slight bump that's been growing on her stomach, and what news she was going to tell him had he not left today.

...

Alfred Pennyworth waits by the airport, standing beside a Royce as he watches the sky, waiting for a private aircraft to return.

Bruce stands inside the plane's bathroom, shaving the small beard he'd grown during his training, and dressing some wounds from the mountain fall. He looks over his bare chest, cleaning the scars and marks, and placing disinfectant over it. He doesn't even flinch from the sting as he leaves the bathroom, replacing his shirt and getting ready to land.

The plane descends onto the run way, slowing down until reaching a complete stop near Alfred and his car. The door opens, the stairs lower, and Bruce walks down, approaching Alfred as soon as he sees him.

"Well, you certainly came back in a state, didn't you?" Alfred smiles welcomingly to his former master, looking at him like a son reunited with his father. Bruce, his chin holding a piece of tissue over each bleeding spot on his poorly shaven face, merely nods back, as Alfred turns away, afraid he'll shed tears at this reunion. "Come on now, you've got a lot of catching up to do."

...

"...So, Harvey's the new DA, detective Gordon is now Commissioner Gordon, and Wayne Industries is in the hands of who?"

"Lucius Fox, sir." Alfred answers Bruce's question as they arrive at a penthouse Bruce bought prior to leaving, untouched for all this time. "Fantastic man sir, smartest I've ever met. He turned your father's company from million dollar little thing into a multi billion dollar corporation, and he did so completely free of any type of crime."

"All that in just two years. Hm, Impressive. How's the RnD department?" He asks as they unlock the door and enter, finding it fully furbished, just as he left it.

"Its where their money comes from. Lucius was able to piece together some of the greatest minds this side of Pennsylvania, developing everything from cell phones for the army to new shoes for the austronauts. And speaking of that, you should see what he did for the space travel research."

"Interesting, Where do I stand in the company now?"

"You sir, you're the bank account the money goes in to. Near enough twenty percent of the earnings go into your pocket. And, combined with what you'd been earning since you were nine and what your parents left you, and interest rates and the lack of taxing bills, you're quite a rich man right now. Oh, and you have one loyal butler, waiting for when you need him. Anything else you'd like to ask?"

"How's the night life?"

...

Two thugs run from an armoured truck they just stole from, heading into an alley only for Bruce, in a mask and his assassin outfit, to strike from behind, hitting on and turning on the other. They're taken out easily, but the gun goes off in their hand and the bullet graces Bruce's arm. He flinches from that, not expecting the sudden pain.

Note, wear body armour.

...

Bruce stands in his penthouse, taking out several crates he'd had Alfred retrieve from the manor. He opens one, taking out several sheets of grey and black metal, the different sheets varying in shades. He takes out a marker, drawing several shapes onto some of them, before taking a small cutting tool and beginning to divide the metal sheets into plates. He takes out another crate, holding another project from his college days, light weight Kevlar sheets.

...

A mugger shoves a woman into a wall and takes her bag, only for Bruce, in a recreated Assassin outfit made out of the two other materials, to grab them and slam them into a wall. The woman grabs her bag and runs, and police cares approach. Bruce runs into an alley, tossing the metal cable on his belt up to the top of a building, only for it to fall back down when he tugs it as it hadn't gripped anything.

Note, get better tools.

...

"...I'm not sure what your interest is in these old military prototypes Mister Wayne, but here they are." Lucius Fox, an elderly man with dark skin and white hair, says to him while two men lift two large crates into his penthouse.

"I think I might be able to find some use to them, for a hobby of mine."

"A hobby? And what would that be?"

"...Mountain climbing."

"Mounting climbing?"

"You know, with...the mountains, and...the climbing."

"Huh..." Lucius raises an eyebrow, but lets it slide. No point making a sarcastic comment to the man who's company you've been running for the last two years.

...

Bruce lands on top of a mob enforcer, slamming their head against the floor as he does so. He spots a black and white approaching, darting into the shadows once more. He holds a small, pistol looking device, up into the air, launching a metal wire up securing its metal head, armed with three blades, onto a gargoyle, the head of the wire gripping onto the wing of the grotesque statue.

He lets go of the trigger, and the wire pulls him up into the air. He releases a second trigger, causing the teeth of the grapple to release and return the whole wire to the grapple, before leaping onto the next gargoyle, only to fall down as its not humanly possible to make that distance, but he manages to save himself with another tool, a pair of metal suction cup like devices to secure onto the wall.

Note, learn how to fly.

...

"...and if you form a V with this memory cloth, you can, how did you say it, fly, like a bird?" Lucius tells him, showing him a large sheet of black nanofibre cloth connected to a red device.

"Yeah, this'll do."

"What did you want to fly for again?"

"For safety reasons. When I'm mountain climbing. In case...I fall."

"Huh..." He raises another eyebrow, but withholds his sarcastic remark once again.

...

He spots a man trying to sell drugs, before firing a metal wire around his feet, pulling him up and securing him on a fire escape. He fires a grappling hook onto a building, pulling himself up and leaping into the air, before lifting his arms up and causing the memory cloth to expand from a small device on his back into what look like a set of wings, allowing him to glide until he spots a gang fight about to escalate. He drops in front of the armed gang members, staring at them.

"Drop your weapons, now." He orders, but to his surprise, non comply and the resulting shootout nearly kills him and all the others, only to be difused by a quick dodge and him tossing metal like-plastic blades that fly like boomarangs, directing them with an aiming device installed into his modified mask, allowing the boomarangs to hit him in them with enough force to knock them to the ground. He looks at his arm, to see that, while the armour stopped it being fatal, he was shot several times, and one managed to break the skin.

Note, be scary.

...

He sits at his pent house, holding a small sketch book. He's drawn demonic, armoured, monstrous, and even just freakish designs, but they're either too goofy, or would cost too much to make them realistic enough to actually be scary, until he hears something, some squeaks and screeches.

He follows the sound to a dark room in his penthouse, turning the lights on, resulting in lots of movement and louder screeches as winged rats fly from their nest in his penthouse, well he did leave it empty for two years and it was already unused for quite a while before he bought it, exiting out the windows, shattering most of them. He realizes that he fell onto his back when they started flying, and actually freaked him out quite a bit.

He's found his design.

...

A speeding car, chased by nothing but its own drift, as three men cheer loudly, drunk and wearing masks as they drive past anything, and anyone, they can see and hitting it with a baseball bat before cheering.

Then, they stop when Bruce, wearing his finished outfit, resembling a grey version of his Assassin suit, but with black boots and braces, a metal helmet with the bottom of his face exposed and two sharp 'ears' to make it look like a bat, and a long cape that give the appearance of demonic wings in the wind.

"Holy mother of...!" The driver screams, before Bruce disappears from his sight, until the passenger is torn from the car, followed by the one in the back, and finally the driver, all finding themselves tied up by metal wires, barely conscious, and soaked in liquids I don't think you want to be described.

Note, finished.

...

Police cars are parked around an alley as ambulances sit next to them, with a mixture of police and paramedics scattered around. A woman sits on the side of a police car with a blanket around her as a thug that tried to harm her sits in a puddle that, they hope, is just rain water, while he clutches his knees in a foetal position, whimpering to himself.

"th-t-th-THE-t-th-THE B-the ba-t-m-THE BAT-me-ma-THE BAT-m-MAN! The-the-the batman-the bat man-the bat-bat-man-man bat-bat the-batman-the-" The would-be attacker twitches, shaking in fear and coldness.

"How long has he been like this?" Questions the recently appointed commissioner, James Gordon, a man in his late forties to early fifties, adorned by his long trench coat, simple fedora, and greying hair and moustache. Gordon, one of the few good cops in this town, and been so since his transfer over twenty years ago, just a few months before the Wayne murders.

"Since we arrived, we can't even get near him without him screaming." Replies one of the paramedics trying to treat him.

"How badly is he hurt?"

"Not much, just a few bruises, maybe a fractured wrist. We can't tell until we take him to the hospital."

"Well, when he snaps out of it, call us and we'll try to get his statement." The commissioner tells him before walking towards two officers talking to the would-be victim.

"...I thought he was going to kill me, but then, I felt him just pull away." She explains to two officers. "I turned around, and saw him slam into a wall, then thrown to the ground, with this, this monster standing above him. I didn't get a good look, but they looked like some, some kind of, I don't know, Bat-Man, thing. It must have scared the life out of him, because he couldn't stop screaming until the creature turned away. That's when it walked towards me."

"This, Bat Man?" Commissioner Gordon asks, taking an interest. "What he do?"

"He just stopped in front of me and looked down. I turned away, I mean, it was scary, but then, I felt its hand on my shoulder. It was warm, almost comforting. Then, then it said something."

"What'd he say?"

"He, well, told me 'It's alright. You're safe now.' Or, at least something like that. By the time I looked up it was gone, like it was never there. I could still feel his hand on my shoulder. Next thing I know, the police are surrounding me and asking if I'm alright."

"You didn't call 911?"

"They broke my phone when they grabbed me, I have no idea who called the police."

"Well, thanks for answering our questions. These paramedics are going to take you to the hospital to get you checked out." One of the cops, a female officer known as Renee Montoya, tells her as they motion for two paramedics to help her. "So, what you think?" she asks the commissioner and the other officer, who both think over it.

"I think she's nuts. Probable messed up from the attack, but she's definitely off her rocker." The other officer, Harvey Bullock, states bluntly as he stretches his neck. "Probably taken some drugs too."

"I don't know, it'd explain the other guy's twitching." Montoya notes, looking back at the twitching mess of a man. "And if she didn't call us, who did?"

"So there's some monster going around scaring the crap out of thugs?" Bullock questions her, squinting one of his eyes a little.

"Probably not, but there was definitely someone here." Commissioner Gordon answers, as he walks back towards the scene with the two officers following him. "Look at the ground, what you see?"

"Footprints." Montoya states, leaning over a little.

"Wow, somebody here had shoes. That proves the existence of bat people!" Bullock quips, smacking his hand with his fist for emphasis.

"No, look at the prints, there's three sets." The Commissioner points out, making Bullock look them over more. One set against scattered around, smaller than the others so likely the woman's, while another set of bigger feet follows hers. A third set, starting in the middle of the shadow-hidden ground and approaching in a single line while the indent doesn't appear to match either of the two others, leads to the wall where the attack happened, then towards where the man was laying, before returning to the woman's place. Unlike the other two sets, the trail just ends, as if they just disappeared.

"Ok, you got me." Bullock's eyes widen a little. "Jesus, we got a Bat Man running around."

"Yeah, and I don't want anyone else talking about it. Don't let this out of the station, tell no one. Any reporters ask, don't comment on anything, understand?" The commissioner tells them, to which they nod. "Good, we don't want any psycho vigilante copy cats running around risking their necks wearing hockey pads and spandex. Next thing we know, we'll have idiots wearing rubber nipples or something trying to pretend they're this Batman."

The police continue their investigation of the scene, all the while oblivious to the figure above them, standing above one of the many gargoyles in the city as his cape flows in the night sky, almost as if the figure is nothing but part of the night sky. He stands, hidden in the darkness as he watches them, noting what they figure out from the case. About time they were able to figure out what happened, He's been around for just over a year, and they _only_ just noticed him?

...

"Wake up Batsy!" The Joker yells, kicking Batman over, and stamping twice on his chest as he returns to the present.

"I don't think he wants to play no more." The woman in the harlequin suit points out, nudging him with a large hammer.

"Batsy never wants to play. He's like that, always quitting our games too early." Joker takes the large hammer from her, lifting it up. "I guess this time I should finish the game early so he can't do it."

Joker holds it above his head before swinging down fast, ready to crush Batman with the hammer. As it starts coming, he widens his eyes suddenly, pulling his legs up and catching the hammer's side with the heel of his feet and pushing back, knocking Joker onto his back.

One of the many thugs scattered about gets out a gun to fire at him, but Batman moves faster, despite his injuries, and tosses the small metal-like plastic collapsible throwing knives, his signature batarangs as they've been called, and hits the gun from his hand before tossing another at the chains above his comrades, allowing it to detonate a small explosion to dismantle the chains and free them.

Joker gets back up and pulls out the shotgun, aiming at his back, when the heel of someone's foot hits him in the back, knocking his aim off before being hit atop his head by a hollow metal stick of some kind, stunning him enough so that the figure in the red suit can get the chains off and get to his feet, joining his father as the two face against the thugs.

"You know, going after the guy's family isn't always a great idea, when that's us." They comment as they leap forward, landing on one thug's face and kicking off, hitting another with the heel of his feet and kicking back against them, rolling out of the way and getting back up as Batman leaps out of the way of gun fire, then catches one of their fists when they try to hit them, twisting them around then pushing them head first into two more, grabbing another by the throat and tossing them back as the younger man pulls a thug's head into his knee, causing them to bounce back into the tossed thug, as he and Batman get back to back.

"Nightwing, watch your left." Batman tells him, as the two turn once more to kick some attackers.

"Not fair! You're s'posed to be unconscious!" The Harlequin yells as two thugs behind her reach for a stack of guns, only for them to be intercepted by the girl in black, who grabs both their forearms and twists upwards, breaking their arms and disabling them. Batman tosses the young Batgirl a plastic tube, which she catches and promptly snaps, poring a strange liquid from the tube over the weapons, causing them to dissolve and burn away.

With her back turned, someone tosses a brick at the back of her head, only for her to spin around quickly and catch it, spinning to throw it right back into their kneecap. She runs forward, pulling out a small bat shaped blade and leaping onto them, stepping onto their shoulder to leap frog off of them and cut the metal chain holding the boy in red and black to free him.

"Robin...up." She says to him, trying to help him stand as he coughs from the previous choking. Someone tries to swing at them but she promptly kicks them in the chin, followed by another who's pulled back by a wire around his neck before the girl with dark blue and purple to flips him over her shoulder.

"Is Tim Ok?" She asks while covering their back, taking out two small handles with wing like metal blades attached, catching someone's weapon in between the twisting blades and pulling it from their hand. "Because, he still needs to teach me to drive, so he can't die yet."

"Gee, I love you too Steph." He mutters as he gets onto his own feet, taking a fighting position. "Or, since we're in costume, how about not using real names now, huh Spoiler?"

"You Ok to fight Boy Wonder?" She asks as the three of them form a triangle like shape.

"No, but it never stopped me before." He replies as he pulls a collapsible fighting staff from the back of her belt. "Mind if I borrow this?"

"Have fun."

So, Batman and the first Boy Wonder Nightwing fight against one half, while Spoiler, Batgirl, and Robin take out the other half, while Joker and his Harley Quinn watch from the middle.

"Well, as great as this was, I think the game's over. We'll be seeing you Bats, and we'll be seeing your family, right after." Joker announces as the number of mooks depletes from 'quite a few' to 'none'. He holds out an explosive, dropping it to the floor as he runs, grabbing his partner by the back of her jumpsuit and pulling her with him.

"Get back." Nightwing tells them as he shields the younger figures, while Batman places his fingers against the side of his temple.

"Oracle, Joker dropped some explosive device, scanning now." He tells someone via radio, while his eye lenses glow brighter and his helmet scans the device.

"Right, getting the schematics as we speak. Just keep on your Knight Vision and we're good." A female voice tells him over the radio, as he looks over the explosive. "Ok, its a simple time bomb, nothing big. It goes off, however, and it'll be a hell to clean up. Open it up, cut a wire, and you're done."

"Spoiler, wire cutters." He doesn't quite ask, more orders, as he kneels over the explosive.

"Sure, wire cutters, they are..." The young girl, who takes off her hood to reveal blond hair, checks a belt with multiple plastic pouches, then checks a second belt around her waist, then checks the third belt, positioned around her thigh. "Ok, got them, since apparently I'm the team pack mule now."

"At least you have something to fall back on. This whole saving Gotham thing doesn't work out, you've got delivery girl to go to." Nightwing tells her while lifting up his face mask a little as she tosses Batman the wire cutters. He catches them, while with his other hand removes the outer casing and places it carefully next to it. He hooks a wire, since contrary to popular belief it doesn't actually matter which one, in the cutters and snips, disabling the bomb. He replaces the cover, before turning to the others.

"Ok, bomb's disarmed, but Joker got away."

"At least the batmobile didn't lose a wheel, that's something, right?" Robin quips, getting a glare from Batman, and an amused smile from Nightwing.

"And you didn't fly away, or lay an egg, since that song can be sung with either line, and I'm just going to be silent for now."

"Oracle, can you track Joker's movements?"

"No can do Bruce, he's already long gone. Trust me, I wish I could."

"Ok, we'll regroup at the Batcave, and discuss what went wrong tonight." He announces to the others, as they all take out a device each from their respective belts or hidden compartment, pressing a switch to summon a vehicle of some kind, ranging from 'weird multi-wheeled bat-themed muscle car with tank armour' to 'High powered red and black motorbike'. Batman and the others get into their respective vehicles, driving away. Well, all except for Spoiler.

"Hey! You haven't gotten me anything yet! What am I supposed to do?" She calls after them. "Come on, you guys are always doing this!"

"Don't worry, I got you." Oracle radios to her, as a bat shaped VTOL jet floats above her, lowering a rope ladder for her.

"Well, at least some people know how to stick together." She comments to herself as she runs onto the ladder, gripping onto it and letting it lift off, leaning over happily to see the sights.

...

Next time-

Batman and Co continue their investigation into Joker and some missing gang members, but are interrupted by a bank robbery turned horror as the hostages and ruthlessly killed and only a handful are left alive, all currently missing. The only clue to this is a single puzzle, a riddle of some kind, and a warning that each hostage will die the longer they wait. Batman takes on a sadistic madman called the Riddler, a compulsive narcissist obsessed with being the smartest man in town.

...

Notes:

-Yes, I went with the Nolan name for Ra's group along with the idea that they were the ones who gave Bruce the bulk of his training.

-The Bruce leaving scene was my attempt at doing an emotional exit. I don't really ship Talia and Bruce, but I don't really ship Bruce with anyone (I don't get why people seem to think he needs to have a love interest, be they boy or girl, I always thought of Bruce as asexual, you don't have many characters in fiction who are asexual and stay that way without someone thinking they should be with someone else; I can only think of Sherlock Holmes and Sheldon Cooper, but people have put Holmes with Irene Adler and Sheldon with Amy. I can sorta see Bruce having romantic feelings for some women (emphasis on his relationship with Talia), but I don't really see him as a sexual guy; Nightwing on the other hand, well, I don't see him as anything that can be described as asexual), but a big aspect of Bruce's relationship with the League is his connection to Talia.

-Alfred is mostly modelled after Nolanverse Alfred, speaking in a more casual, if older gentlemeny, manner.

-There, overall, I quite like it. Hope you enjoyed, now either read the next chapter or review.

-Yes, I went with the name Knight Vision from the Bruce has a Problem fanverse, but in fairness, its a pretty amusing name. Like the Batcave and Batmobile, I think this is one Dick probably named.

-So, in summary, yeah, Batman and the Batfam, what's not to like? I figured a big group would be better for my kind of story telling, I proffer big casts of characters. Its probably why Spider-Man works with Moon Knight and Daredevil so much in my Spider-Man fic. Anyway, enjoy.


	2. Riddle Me This

Ok, you just read the first chapter, which honestly I could have saved for later but whatever, here's a chapter that had I gone with 'fresh continuity told from beginning' method would have came a lot earlier, but here's the first 'case' in this story. Enjoy.

...

Fear. It grips the heart of every man, woman, and child in Gotham. Its used to harm the weak by the evil, and to shield the innocent by the good. Fear is Gotham's greatest weapon against itself.

A family huddle together inside a bank, hiding behind a table, quivering as all around them lie bodies, blood, and carnage. An armed robbery turned worse than thought quickly, and they're not sure why.

A green hook claps onto the side of the table, pulling it over to reveal them to the madman, his glasses flashing in the light.

"Please! Don't hurt my family!" The father of the group begs, only for the figure to drop the table quickly and move over them.

Two-four hours later, they were found by Gotham City's finest, and soon the bank was filled with officers.

"Commissioner, you better take a look at this." A young police detective calls, and Gordon approaches them to take their request.

"What are we looking at?"

"Bank robbery, one man, guy was armed." He explains as they enter, flinching upon seeing all the dead bodies. Even after over a decade in Gotham, you never quite get used to the sight of evil. "The clerks gave them what they wanted, didn't trip any secret alarms, then tried to get everything over with quickly."

"Didn't trip any alarms? Why not?"

"Its Gotham, Gordon, when a guy has a gun its usually best to do as they say and hope it doesn't go bad, but..."

"Then he killed them all?"

"Apparently. The guy we're after is one sick bastard. This isn't the first. We've had two other massacres in the last few days, and the same description is linked to three other robberies."

"And we've been sitting on this?"

"Boss, we have the Joker and Harley Quinn on the run, Black Mask's still missing, and there's been news of a terrorist attack, a few banks being ripped isn't something we really care about."

"Or notice. What's this?" Gordon kneels down as a CSU takes a picture of writing, written in blood and spelling out something.

"How many people were in the bank this morning?" Gordon asks the detective.

"CCTV shows about twenty five people, including staff, at the time when the guy came in...But there's only twenty bodies. There's another five unaccounted for."

"Have you read the message?" Gordon asks him, as they both look.

'WHO WANTS A RIDDLE?'

"What are you going to do now Commissioner?"

"Get help."

**The Game of Gotham**

Wayne Manor, just to the side of Gotham City.

Bruce Wayne, by day the Golden Prince of Gotham and by night the Dark Knight Detective, breathes heavily while in the kitchen, doing an unnecessary amount of push-ups while the news is on. Alfred prepares a breakfast for five, as next to him the oldest of the others drinks a cup of coffee while buttoning his shirt. Bruce finishes up, taking a rest and sitting on the chair as Alfred starts to hand out the breakfast. Since the day he first became Batman, his operation has, despite not planning to, grown into a full fledged team, a family.

From Dick Grayson, to the late Jason Todd, to Barbara Gordon, to Tim Drake, to Stephanie Brown, to Cassandra Cain, up to and including Jean-Paul Valley and Helena Bertinelli, all of them are people he can rely on when he needs to, even if he at times refused to.

Following recent events, the Wayne Manor has became more occupied than normal. Dick's moved in full time for now, after his apartment was destroyed by the recent Earthquakes. Barbara lives not too far, but might as well be living with them the amount of time she spends there. Cass is living full time, now that she's officially adopted, while Tim spends every moment he can there, returning to his home when he's done, while Stephanie is currently being fostered by Bruce as they wait for her mother to come out of rehab.

"Breakfast is served." Alfred announces as he places the remaining plates on the table. Bruce almost drops his food out of his hand when a smaller arm reaches next to him, until he notices its just Cass. A doorbell rings, and Tim enters soon after.

"Mind actually waiting for someone to answer next time? The door's locked for a reason Timmy." Dick comments while picking up one long piece of bacon, stuffing it into his mouth with the table manners of a gorilla, followed by a sausage and a fried egg.

"Well, mind answering next time, and we won't have a problem." Tim replies, as the two laugh lightly, Dick moving to give him a seat as he puts his plate away. Tim takes his shoes off and sits down, while Cass pushes a plate of sausages over to him.

"Morning peoples...whoa!" Steph starts, tripping over Tim's shoes, only for Dick to catch her, placing her down while smirking.

"You know, there's a thing called a floor, try watching it and that might not happen." He smiles, ruffling her hair as he walks out. "Ok, I'm off, bye people."

"Yeah, bye Dick." Tim says goodbye, while everyone else waves him off.

"What time is it?" Steph asks, taking a seat between Tim and Bruce and taking some waffles.

"About two in the afternoon. You're lucky its not a school night Miss Brown, you're getting later every day." Alfred explains, while poring them out a drink each.

"Yeah, sorry, but its not like I'm the only one sleeping in, right?"

"So, you waited until two to serve breakfast?" Tim asks aloud.

"I'm used to the late waking, they come as a side effect of the late nights. Its a good thing you're self employed Master Wayne, there would be many problems if you weren't so bloody rich."

"Noted Alfred, I'll remember that."

"So, what do we do tonight? Drug bust? Patrol? Oh, can we race Batmobiles down to the west side and catch-"

"No." Bruce interrupts Stephanie, finishing his bacon and drink. "Tonight is a day off. Go to sleep early, unless you're needed."

"You say that every night."

"And every night you never listen."

"Its a quirk, makes me endearing."

"If that's how you see it." Tim comments while taking one of her waffles, as Bruce's phone starts to ring. He opens it up, looks at the caller ID, and answers.

"Oracle, its in the middle of the day. What is it?"

"Oh, hello to you too sunshine, so nice of you to be so welcoming." The computer genius on the other end mutters. "Take it you haven't heard yet, but there's been an incident at Gotham East National Bank, and I can't begin to think of a way to describe what's happened."

"Armed Robbery?"

"More than that. Get your cape and press your bat pants Bruce, you're going to want to see this."

"It's the middle of the day."

"I noticed, I do have a clock. But, my Dad's going to want to see you soon about it anyhow, might be best not to let this one wait."

"Fine, I'll be there." He closes the phone, finishing what he's eating and leaves.

"Hey, we going somewhere?" Tim asks.

"No."

"Ok...just you then?" Tim, again, asks, but this time Bruce ignores him.

...

Back at the scene, Gordon looks about inside, taking mental note of the investigation.

"They showed no remorse in their actions." Gordon turns when he hears that, spotting Batman standing there, looking over the events.

"Any idea on what happened?" Gordon asks, as Bruce kneels down to look at some details.

"They weren't running away, or fighting back. Each one was killed, brutally, for doing exactly as he told them." Batman replies, visualising the events as they unfold in his imagination. He gets up, walking towards the vault. He peers inside, looking at the surprisingly large amount of money left behind. "This wasn't about money. They weren't here to rob the bank."

"Come again?" He raises an eyebrow at that statement.

"They took no more than two thousand dollars, they could have easily taken more, especially when they were all dead. He didn't want money."

"Then, what did he want?"

"This isn't the first time he did this." Batman states, turning to him.

"No, he's done it two other times, and we linked him to two other bank robberies. Apparently we haven't done anything on it because of Joker and Mask being on the loose."

"You didn't give them what they wanted."

"What?"

"They robbed five banks, three of which ended in a bloodbath. They didn't take much money, and nobody bothered to so much as trip off an alarm. They didn't want money, they wanted attention. They're a compulsive narcissist, trying to get you to do what he wants. He wants to have power over you, and when he didn't..."

"...He turned violent. What about the writing on the floor."

"That, is his invitation."

"We also found a note he left, crumpled up and left in one of the dead hostage's hand." Gordon explains, before turning to one of the CSUs. "Hey, can we get a look at that note."

Batman watches as one of the CSUs turn to the side, pulling out a small sealed bag, holding a blood stained note. He looks, noticing some of the people lying on the floor, including a couple. They looked married, in love. Parents, killed brutally and leaving their child alone in the world. He snaps out of that, returning to the present to take the bagged note and look it over.

"There's also a problem, some of the hostages are unaccounted for. We think he's taken them with him wherever he is."

Bruce raises an eyebrow behind the white lenses, turning to look at Gordon, before returning to the note.

'Abel always built walls to keep people away. His brother proffered to let people come and go. Where are they now?'

"Any idea what it means?"

"It's a riddle."

"Ok, that we gathered, but what..." Gordon asks him as he turns back, only to see Batman already gone, again. "Hey, is the CCTV working? Might be able to see how he does that."

...

"Help! Please!" Someone, a young man, yells as they wake up, finding themselves in a cold room, chained to a chair that's bolted to the floor. There's no door, no window, no light, nothing except themself, and a small TV, stuck on static.

"Can someone hear me? Help!" They keep struggling, soon realizing they can hear something, a ticking sound.

Then they notice the bomb strapped to their neck, with only two hours left on the timer.

"HELP! PLEASE! For the love of god PLEASE!"

...

Wayne Manor, a prestigious building, home to the Wayne family since they first settled in Gotham, before the American Revolution. Built by hand, the home has been a staple of the New Jersey based town for longer than any other building. Renovations took place three times, once recently, to repair some damages to the home, another a few years ago, to add some security features. And once, during the Civil War, to install a set of caverns for hiding runaway slaves. The caves left over have been used for several things, but since Bruce started this little hobby, they've served as a hideout for his equipment, his own Batcave.

"So, what's up?" Dick asks as he returns home, specifically the underground caves of Wayne Manor, where he finds all of the others waiting around, mostly dressed in their suits but without as much formality. Bruce and Cass are lacking their masks, while Tim and Steph are both maskless and have their respective hoods pulled down. He takes his Nightwing suit from the stand, tossing it over his shoulder. "Just finished my shift, what're we doing?"

"We're hunting a killer." Cass explains simply, turning to him.

"Oh, Serial or Spree?"

"Mass killer."

"So, mind elaborating someone?"

"Bank robbery ended in a massacre." A voice from a computer monitor explains, as the image of a woman in her early twenties appears, with red hair and glasses. "Third time in the last few days."

"Oh, hey Oracle, wondered when you'd call." Dick smiles, taking a seat. "So, anything else?"

"Gotham's finest linked it to two other robberies as well, ones which had a much happier ending." Tim explains going over some notes he was given by Bruce.

"More than that, actually." Oracle explains. "I cross referenced those, and it turns out the same guy hit another five in Star City and Hub City first, and a couple in Bludhaven. The police had no clue who was responsible and couldn't figure it out, but unlike our fair city, they at least tried before they turned deadly."

"How come?" Steph asks, raising an eyebrow.

"They were too smart for them apparently." She replies. "They always kept their face away from the cameras, never touched anything with their bare hands, used a voice distorter to call the cops afterwards to taunt them, and didn't give much info in the way of any motives. They were a mystery."

"Can you play the CCTV for us?" Bruce asks her, making her nod in reply.

"Already hacked the feed." The monitor opens a second window, displaying pixelized footage of what happened.

"Can you zoom in and enhance that?" Tim asks.

"This isn't a cop show Timmy, computers aren't magical boxes that can do anything."

"So, that's a no?"

"Just watch the footage."

With a shrug, he sits back and watches the footage of the man responsible, as they get handed the money, before shooting the bank manager and turning to the crowd of hostages, killing most of them with little remorse.

"Cass, they telling you anything?"

"Footage is jumpy. Hard to read. But, they were there to kill from the start." She explains, watching as the footage repeats and loops. "They waited until they did as they were told before they got angry, however. He twitched when he saw they didn't press the alarm. He stopped caring about hiding his identity. He began looking at the cameras."

"Well, why did he bother in the first place? Those things are terrible at getting faces." Tim points out. "They're always so...out of focus, and evidently can't be magically enhanced."

"He was being careful." Bruce explains. "But he stopped when they didn't try to look for him."

"What about the riddle, what's that?" Tim brings up, as Oracle switches to show an enhanced picture of said note.

" 'Abel always built walls to keep people away. His brother proffered to let people come and go. Where are they now?' " Dick reads. "So, we established that this guy is weird, but what's with leaving a weird riddle behind?"

"Its a challenge. It's why they're so desperate for attention. He thinks of himself as this superior being, that he's more intelligent than everyone else. He wants people to challenge that so he can prove it and win. He wants to play games, and win." Bruce explains, all the while silently analysing what they've got so far.

"So, we establish that they have the mental age of a seven year old. So, why is the riddle so, stupid?" Steph asks, resulting in a small laugh from Tim. "Like, what does it mean?"

"Abel's brother...might mean Cain? Like Cain and Abel?" Tim suggests.

"If we're looking for locations, that might refer to something owned by the Kanes." Dick adds.

"If 'Kane' proffered to let people come and go, that would...Kane Bridge." Bruce realizes, getting up quickly and pulling up his cowl.

"Want us to come too-" Stephanie asks as she pulls on her own mask.

"No." He interrupts, pressing a button on his belt to bring the Batwing down, entering it quickly and flying off, as the others stay behind.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Tim asks, looking about as Dick just shrugs.

"Well, I'm going to go eat something, you two can train or something. Tim, you still need to work on your upper body strength, and Steph, you need to work on...just about everything." Dick says to them, patting them on the back as he returns upstairs.

...

The victim continues to scream, as the bomb continues to tick.

The madman responsible watches, with vague interest, while sitting on a comfy chair and watching several other monitors, including that of the bank, all to see if Gotham really did listen to him.

Then, it happens. The wall on the side of the room is blown open, as a shrouded figure lunges in, covering the scared victim and pulling him out. They lean forward, rewinding and replaying, watching it again and again, as they see several times the same images. Explosion, shadow, then gone, leaving only the torn remains of the bomb. They opened it up and took it apart within a second. Nothing should be that fast.

Then, he stops it, just at the right frame. The figure, with the pointed cowl that looks like a bat.

"What...who are you?" He mutters under his breath, stroking the image slightly, as he finally found someone fun to play with.

...

"Oh god, oh god." The victim dribbles, terrified, as they clutch onto Batman, who is currently flying down from the bridge to a safer spot using a metal cord, dropping them down safely. "Oh, for the love of, thank you. Thank you...Bat...man?" He realizes who his saviour is, and almost cries with happiness.

"Where are the others. The other hostages."

"What?" He questions, before clicking. "Oh! He told me, he made me memorise it. 'Where the next mixture is, in the hole it will be'. I have no idea what it means, but its what I got-hello?" He realizes a few seconds later that Batman is gone, and that the safer point he placed him down is the roof of the closest Gotham City Police Department precinct.

...

"Ok, what do we have?" Oracle asks as Bruce continues running across the night skyline, leaping from roof to roof, soaring over, gliding and swinging, and various other methods of moving about.

"They're leaving riddles. Its a game. The next victim is at Ace Chemicals, I'll be there in a few moments."

"Wait, what? How did you-"

"In the hole. The riddle he gave me was in the hole. It means as in Ace in the hole. And it said where the next mixture is, like a chemical mixture."

"...huh?"

"I'll talk to you later Barbara, I have work to do." He disconnects, leaping off of a building and gliding down, smashing into the window of Ace chemicals, finding a woman tied up in chains, hanging by her wrists above a vat of chemicals. He dives, tossing two batarangs up and cutting the chain as he tackles them, rolling the two away from the acid. He tears apart the cover of the explosive on the throat, tearing out a wire and deactivating it before taking it off.

"What did he tell you?" He asks, getting down to the point.

"What?" They ask in between shocked sobs, as he cuts them from the chains.

"The man who did this. He gave you a riddle, what, was, it?"

"He...he gave me a list. Its in my back pocket. He didn't think I could memorise it all, so he wrote it down and put it in my pocket." She explains, taking the list out as Batman snatches it from her hand.

"Thank you. Now, go outside, head to the nearest payphone, and call the police. Tell them your name, where you are, and what happened." He hands her a small handful of change, about enough for a payphone call. "Ask for Commissioner Gordon."

"O-ok. What about you?"

"I'm going to find the others." He replies, turning a firing his grappling gun up, pulling himself away.

...

Back at the Batcave, the others are waiting patiently, as anyone else in their situation would do. Dick was sitting on a table, drinking a small cup of hot cocoa, Barbara, who had came in from her own base of operations, was sitting by their computer, and Cass was sat next to Dick, while Steph and Tim did as they were told by Dick. Which, evidently resulted in the two fighting with collapsible staffs.

They clash, like two Gladiators, if the two gladiators were teenagers who are notably short for their age, as Tim swings at Steph.

"Mind your footing. God, you're too slow." He tells her, smiling a little, while she pouts a little and dodges out of the way, only for him to trip her while she does so. "And you really have no idea how to keep balance."

She replies by hitting him in the foot with the staff, causing him to trip and land above her, as she then turns to pin him down.

"As should you. And, you really have no idea how to talk to people, do you?"

"You know, I could get out of this really easily."

"Then why don't you?" She smirks, as he awkwardly sweats.

"You know, they remind me of us two when we were that age." Dick says to Babs, turning to her as he loses interest in their sparring match.

"Yeah, except of course this time around he actually has a brain in his head." She replies, as he just laughs. "And can actually go two missions without being kidnapped."

"That happened once."

"I rescued you once. You got kidnapped a lot, or held as hostage."

"I was sixteen."

"So was he. He didn't have that problem."

"Are you two fighting, or, flirting?" Cass asks, snapping the two from that, and making them blush a little.

"Bit of both, Cass." Dick laughs it off, taking a drink as he spots Bruce returning. "So, Bruce, you found the hostages?"

"Not all of them. Barbara, I sent you something, have you got it?" He asks her, as she turns back to the computer, loading up some pages before showing the image of the note, displaying the three riddles.

"Ok, got it. What is it?"

"Its a game. The one responsible wants to play a game with the authorities in order to free the hostages. I'm not sure how much time we have, so I want you to four to split into pairs and deal with the riddles, I'll deal with the third, the other two you four can handle. Barbara, you have a list of what we know, I want you to make a profile of who we're dealing with so we can find them and work out who they are."

"Ok, on it. Bruce, be careful, and that goes to the rest of you too."

"Aren't we always?" Dick smiles, placing his mask on while zipping up his uniform.

"No."

"Maybe not, but has that ever stopped us?" Steph notes while pulling up her hood.

"Last night you all got kidnapped."

"But we got free, and that's all that matters." Tim adds, collapsing his staff and placing it on his back, as the three of them, along with the ever silent Cass, break into twos and take the high powered motorbikes out, ready to find the location of the hostages.

...

"Ok Bruce." Oracle starts as Bruce stands atop a gargoyle, scanning the area while listening in to her. "First Riddle's yours. 'I once hit a homerun here and it rhymed with Killer. Where is it?' Any clue?"

"Miller Park." He replies, jumping off and using his gliding cape to descend, heading towards the park.

"...What?"

"Think about it."

"Ok, a homerun, which you would hit...if you're at a ball park. And killer-"

"Rhymes with Miller. Miller Park."

"That's...strange. I mean seriously, these riddles are really weird."

"We live in a weird world." He replies, taking out his grappling gun and firing at the closest gargoyle, pulling himself forward. "Ok, I'm nearing the park, I'll call back when I find them."

He swings down, landing atop a tree in the park, where he activates a scanner built into his suit to see the environment better. He looks about as the scanner's vision picks up different objects about, including a camera. He ignores this and keeps looking, eventually spotting a humanoid figure, currently moving, several feet underground in what looks like a casket.

He dives for the area quickly, digging quickly to get to the person inside. He sees as they slowly begin to slow down as they run out of oxygen, so he speeds up, managing to uncover the casket. He takes out a batarang, using it to dig into the coffin and pull off the lid, pushing the dirt aside and pulling the barely conscious victim out of the small structure, placing them on a nearby bench. He checks to see their breathing and pulse, and once he's confident that they're fine, he leaves.

"Oracle, they're safe. How's everyone else doing?"

"Tim and Cass are dealing with the first riddle, Dick and Steph have got the second. If you head back to the cave now we can start trying to figure out who we're dealing with."

"On it, keep me posted on the others." He presses a button on a small device on his belt, causing the armoured Batmobile to come to pick him up.

...

"So, 'I bet the Unsinkable wished it could crash here.' Do you know what it might mean?" Tim asks Cass as the two of them stand above a church, thinking to themselves about the riddle.

"I don't know." She replies simply.

"Is it a reference or something?" Tim ponders, shaking his head to that. "I don't get it, where could it be referring to?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe if we...no. For the love of...I should know this."

"Don't, blame yourself. We just need to think."

"But we don't have time. People's lives are at stake. Its like we're on some kind of sinking ship just waiting for...Cass, you're a genius."

"I...am?" She pulls a puzzled look, as he hits his head upon realizing.

"The Iceberg Lounge!"

"...What?"

"If you wanted to crash somewhere, you'd want it to be somewhere you could lounge about. And the Unsinkable, as well as being Steph's self appointed title, was the nickname of the Titanic, which crashed into an iceberg and sank."

"Your logic lacks any logic at all." She deadpans, though he doesn't seem to notice.

"Maybe, and its a real long shot, but Bruce made these kind of deductions all the time, come on, its our only shot."

"If you insist..."

With that, he's dragging her off, heading to the Iceberg lounge.

...

Sionis Steel Mill, an old smelting plant by the coast of Gotham, with a large section actually held above the sea with support beams. Its been out of production for two years, though last year it was used by the Fake Face Society, who's leader Black Mask was really the former owner Roman Sionis, to torture and execute people they wanted to get rid of. Dick has vague memories of the area; he came here during a big raid and helped catch many of Sionis' men, but its not a particularly memorable experience. Same can't be said for Steph, however, as she can associate this place with two things: The day Batman finally accepted her as a crime fighter, and the most traumatic experience of her life.

But, that's where the riddle lead them. 'Was his Mask made of Steel or Ebony? Its not like he didn't have any of the former'. Sionis was known for his skull shaped ebony mask, and it didn't take the two long to connect that.

They slip in through the roof, sticking to support beams on the top. Its mostly empty, and apparently lifeless.

"Ok, we might have the wrong place, but keep searching." Dick notes, as he looks down to the various abandoned and rusted pieces of equipment. Steph looks about as well, as she tried to ignore some of the memories that come to mind. Chains, like what was used to bind her. Tools, which pierced her skin. The large open wooden floorboards, still stained with her blood, and the ever familiar scent of it still reeks up the place.

"Steph?" Dick places a hand on her shoulder, taking her out of that moment. "You Ok?"

"Yeah...I'm great." She replies, exhaling while regaining her composure. "I'm fine, really."

"Seriously, if being here is hard, you can sit this one out."

"No, seriously Dick, I can do this. I've faced my demons, I can do this."

"Ok, well, if you change your mind you can-" He pauses when he hears the sound of screaming, holding her back as they watch five hired thugs entering, dragging an unconscious hostage. They have an explosive wrapped around their neck like one of the others, while the two thugs begin chaining them up by a small hole of broken floorboards.

"He's got hired muscle?"

"Well, didn't your dad have thugs to help him plant his clues?"

"That's different. My dad worked for Falcone, he had people to do all the work while he planted the clues behind."

"Whatever, so the psychopath has some help, we'll have that noted when we get back. First, we need to save the hostage. So, I want you to head to the far east, and set up some timed smoke bombs..."

...

The Iceberg Lounge, Gotham's premiere nightclub. A meeting ground for Gotham's ugly and gritty, and the best source for information about criminals.

Inside one of the large rooms is a pool, which, while usually open to VIPs, is closed tonight.

Likely because its filled with man hungry sharks tonight. Above that is a large set of chains, with one of the hostages hanging by a chain, as two men, bouncers, stand guard.

A shadow suddenly appears over the window then disappears, getting their attention. The shadow appears a few more times, getting the two men's attention. When they continue looking around, to their shock, the hostage is gone, somehow saved without them knowing.

Then, a fist connects with the back of the head of one of them, before the other is shoved hard into the wall.

The hostage's disappearance is alerted by the security feeds, until they all shut down. The people in the nightclub's other rooms then discover that the power is cut off, as two figures start moving in the darkness, silently but quickly disabling whatever's left of the security forces.

One man runs up some stairs towards the scene, only to be hit in the face with a metal staff and knocked back down the stairs.

Another gets a gun from an armoury, but the second he leaves the gun is torn apart while in his grip and he's hit in the face with an elbow.

Two more take out their side arms, but are both knocked out a window, finding themselves hanging by metal ropes around their ankles.

Up in the top room, the owner of the establishment waits inside his office, as he has his best men scattered around outside. Oswald Cobblepott, the Penguin as he's called due to his stubby build, long nose, squawky voice, and tendency to wear a suit that makes him look like the bird. He sits still, anxious about whoever is attacking. He never should have agreed to that request, now he's got a bat problem.

He hears screams from outside, and the sound of someone cracking jokes. So one of the sons are here, he knows that much.

Then, the moonlight through the window, the only source of light in the room, is obscured by something. He looks, seeing that the silhouette of a figure has formed a shadow, one with two, long pointed 'ears'.

"Crap!" He yells, turning to the window and pulling out a shotgun, looking outside to find who's there. But, instead of the large and intimidating figure he expected, he sees someone smaller with a skinny, female build, perched outside on one of the nearing rooftops. "Who the hell are-"

He's silenced by a metal pole of some kind being pulled against his windpipe, as someone's back is pressed against his own and he's lifted off his feet by the metal object around his neck. He's pulled back and flipped over, landing on his feet with the figure responsible facing him, only for them to then push the metal staff forward and hit him in the nose, knocking him onto his back.

"Hey, Cobblepott, I think we should have a little chat." Robin announces, as The Penguin pulls himself away, grabbing the shotgun and trying to take aim. Before he can fire, Cass dives through the window, gripping the gun as she flips over them, pulling it apart and allowing the shotgun slugs to fly out. The two corner him, Robin spinning the staff around cockily.

"What about? What right do you have, coming in here, without any warrants or rights." He sneers, only for Batgirl to grab him by the collar, pulling him back and hanging him out of the window.

"Talk. Now." She hisses, glaring at him behind her mask while holding the man up, despite the fact that, even if he's quite short, she's still larger than her, leading to an unusual sight.

"You know, I'd really do as she says." Robin laughs, holding his staff up to Penguin's nose. "Because, believe it or not, she's the good cop in this duo."

"Fine! Whatcha want me to say eh? What's this about?"

"Bank murders. Hostage, in your place. Your men, guarding them."

"What? Oh. Some pencil necked nutjob, calling himself the Riddler, came to me with a simple proposition. I had some boys help him with this big game he was playing with the cops, in exchange, he used some, what do ya call it, equation, to work out bank codes and stuff, got us a few million to pay for our services." He snorts at that. "What's the matter, police too stupid to play his game-"

With that, Batgirl drops him, wrapping a rope around his ankle before he falls and leaves him hanging there.

"We need. To tell Batman."

"Yeah, good idea. Come on, Gordon's men can deal with him." The two leave, with Cobblepott hanging there grunting, waiting to be freed.

...

Back at the Steel Mill, the thugs start setting up chains above a large hole in the floor overlooking , leaving the barely conscious hostage tied in chains.

"Don't get it, why'd the boss make a deal with this freak?" One asks, slouching on a chair, oblivious to Nightwing sneaking behind him, hooking a device to the back of his shirt.

"Hey, the guy got us a lot of money for this, and how to get even more. We do as he says, we get what we need for bigger houses." Another rebuts, as Dick waits for him to turn away, allowing him to hook two more with the same devices.

They continue talking, while he sneaks by them and places one of these devices on each one of them. Once done, he pulls out, returning to the shadows overlooking them.

"Why don't we just kill the hostage? Then they can't solve this riddle."

"Then we get linked to a murder charge. You know how these guys are, you kill someone they break your collarbone." One explains, as Steph stands above, dropping a small device onto his weapon.

"What guys?" They look confused, as their weapon is bugged too.

"You know, the bat freaks."

"What, you mean, Batman and Robin and all that?" They glare, before laughing. "You actually believe in all that crap? Yeah, right, a half man, half bat creature is really out there, hunting guys like us down."

"What? You think its some kind of urban legend? What kind of dumbass are you?" They get up from their seat, giving Spoiler a chance to drop a device on one of the other guns. "We live in a world filled with alien invasions and Super freaks flying out in spandex, you really going to be a sceptic about this? Have you not seen those lights on the GCPD?"

"Yeah, because the cops wouldn't totally fuel the fire on this one. Face it, its just some bull$&!£ conspiracy the cops spread to keep us all scared."

"You honestly think that? What's wrong with you, we've got half the cops in our pockets, why would they want us scared?" Spoiler returns to safety, pulling out a small device and activating one of the small bugs on the gun, causing it to sprout tiny spider legs and crawl into the gun barrel, before each one does the same.

"Hey, both of you, take it easy." One of the other thugs tells them, separating the two, as the two heroes regroup. "We're here to do a £^&ing job, so we're doing it."

"Forget that, I'm cutting our losses." They reply, taking their gun out and aiming it at the hostage. "Lets see any of your Bat Men come stop me."

"Ok, I'll do just that." Dick drops to the floor in front of them, smirking as he does so. "Still a sceptic? Do you need me to show you our photo albums?"

"Jesus, who the hell is this pretty boy?" One yells as they all hold their weapons up, taking attention away from the hostage.

"Oh, you think I'm pretty?"

"It ain't Batman, and it don't look like Robin. Then who the hell is this one?"

"Well, now I'm just plain insulted." Nightwing mutters, pressing a button on a trigger in his hand, causing each of the devices he planted to explode into smoke, knocking them forward and leaving them blind.

"Gotta love the toys. Best part of the job." Spoiler comments, dropping down behind them and untying the hostage.

"What the? There's another one here!"

"You know, that's my favourite part of the job too." Nightwing adds as two of them try to fire their weapons, only for them to explode the barrel in their hands and knock them out. As the smoke starts to clear, Nightwing moves forward, hitting one in the back of the leg with an eskrima stick, turning and swing at another, hitting them upside their head. "Of course, kicking a little butt never gets old."

"Need a hand?" Spoiler asks, as two thugs grab him by his arms, only for him to leap up, somersaulting above them and hitting them in the back with his knee, taking them down.

"I'm good, you take care of the hostage." He replies, leaping up, spinning in the air and tossing his sticks at two of the mooks, bouncing off their heads and returning to him when he lands on one of the others.

"Right, got it." She salutes, returning to trying to pry off the chain. "Ok, hostage person, do us both a favour and stay still, things will go much more smoothly if you just-"

"Get me out of here!" They screech, struggling to get out and thrashing about like a fish out of water.

"Or, ignore what I'm saying and act like a trapped beaver. Whatever works for you." She sighs while pulling the chain from them, but their struggling proves too difficult, causing them to roll out of her grasp, and into the hole, into the water. "No!"

She gets ready to dive in, but stops when she sees the water, having a brief flashback to falling into it while chained up, with Killer Crock swimming around.

"Spoiler!" Dick shouts, snapping her out of it as she turns back, only for a metal knuckle to hit into her face.

She falls into the water, splashing about as she goes underneath while the thug responsible smirks, spitting into the water as he turns...until a metal wire fires out and hits into a support beam above him, imbedding into the wood. He turns around, as a purple Kevlar kneepad hits into his nose, with Spoiler, holding the hostage, flying up, and kicking off of him.

"Hey, do us all a favour and stay out of trouble here." She tells them, taking what's left of the chain off of them and leaving them at the side, turning back, getting ready to help Dick...

Only for him to have finished.

"You couldn't have saved any for me?"

"I wasn't sure if you fighting here would be the best choice." He replies simply. "I saw you freeze back then, wouldn't want that happening when you've got two guys twice your size taking potshots now would we. Now, come on, we need to gather some evidence from here. If it'll make you feel any better, we could go to where my parents died afterwards, so you're not the only one who starts flipping out with post traumatic stress and all."

...

GCPD rooftop, late at night as Commissioner Gordon waits, the all familiar searchlight beaming into the sky.

"Waiting for someone pap?" He hears to his side, turning to seeing his daughter, Barbara, as she joins him.

"Babs? What are you doing here?"

"Figured you could use something to drink." She hands him a small cup of coffee, while looking into the sky. "Don't worry, he'll be here soon."

"I'm here now." Batman drops in front of them, landing in a crouch with his cape covering his body, rising slowly to stand in front of them.

"You two still working together?" Gordon asks, getting a slight nod from his daughter. When he found his daughter in hospital following her injuries, it didn't take him long to work out she'd been the vigilante Batgirl, though he already had some suspicions on that as it was. Still, her new role as a computer wiz may make her a little more safer, it still doesn't change the fact she's doing the exact thing he didn't want her to do, fight crime. "Ok, what've we got."

"The hostages are safe. I personally made sure they were alright, while my people took care of two of the riddles."

"_Your_ people?" Gordon raises an eyebrow, before noticing that, around him, the four others are currently all sitting around, doing their own thing.

"Sup' Gordon." Dick waves happily, receiving a nod in reply.

"Right. Ever thought of going Global? Making some kind of Batman Industries?"

"Thought crossed my mind." Batman replies. "While they were working on that, me and your daughter devised a profile of who we're after. The man responsible is a white male, in his late twenties to early thirties. He's narcissistic so he'll be well groomed, likely wears expensive clothes no matter the situation. He's highly intelligent and knows it, so he'll likely work for a big company, maybe even own one. Despite this, he's incapable of feeling anything for others, especially compassion, so he won't be in a committed relationship but will be well thought of by others who know him, and while he may have a successful career now and started outside of Gotham, he knows a great deal about the geography and architecture of the city, so he likely originated here, possibly working briefly in construction, or being related to someone who does that would give him access to this information. Lastly, he likely suffered some form of humiliation or distress recently, such as loosing his company, getting fired, or loss of his home, which would bring on his need to prove his intelligence."

"Quite a lot to follow." Gordon notes. "What about your people? What've they got?"

"Me and, Batgirl here tracked down a connection to Penguin. Apparently the guy we're after is some math wiz who helped him make tons of money, so he would help set up his game." Robin explains, adjusting his gloves as he stands up straight.

"And they're the ones who took the hostages to where they had to go." Spoiler continues. "Me and Nightwing dealt with some of them."

"Ha, you really helped there." Nightwing laughs, while holding out a small bag. "Anyway, while there we also got some of their stuff, before they could set it up. Look at this."

"Is that a camera?" Gordon puts on a pair of gloves as he picks up a high tech camera, looking it over.

"Wireless spy camera, designed to send audio and HD images across the city so someone could watch and hear everything, with a signal scrambler designed to stop anyone hacking the feed. We checked it out and this thing is not cheap. Even Penguin couldn't get a hold of it if he tried." Nightwing explains. "Either way, this guy's got connections. The company that made it's called Enigma Electronics, a subsidiary owned by Luthor Corp that went bust a year or two ago. This was a prototype that never made it to market, so the guy had to be part of the company somehow."

"Oracle, can you apply the profile to anyone who could have gotten access to those prototypes?" Bruce asks her, turning attention to her.

"Oracle?" Gordon raises an eyebrow. "Cute name."

"Let me check." She adjusts her glasses as she takes out a small laptop from a bag by her side, booting it up and accessing a database. "Ok, browsing...browsing. Nope, nothing. No one who fits the profile enough to be our-wait one second." She starts clicking something, typing a few keys in.

"Something up Barb?" Tim asks, as Gordon turns to look over her shoulder.

"The guy who was in charge of developing the camera and founded the subsidiary, Edward Nigma, there's virtually nothing on him. Literally. No birth certificate, no passport, no tax info. Not even a social security number."

"Sounds like a fake identity. Any credit info on him?" Gordon suggests, as she types something in.

"Yeah, a credit card, used to pay for a first class plane ticket to Gotham, just before the first robbery." Barbara replies.

"E Nigma. Enigma." Cass notes to herself quietly, while thinking about the first name.

"So, the guy's a fan of word play. He's like the lamest serial killer in history." Spoiler notes, though is ignored.

"Wait, got something." Babs opens up a page. "Edward Nygma, spelt with a 'y', apparently somebody thinks poor literacy is cool now or something. Formerly known as Edward Nashton until he had his name legally changed to Edward Nygma. They were a child genius, and I mean that seriously. As a boy, he won tons of achievements for all sorts of fun subjects, but his dad, Coleman Nashton, never let him go to college, and from his medical history, wasn't what I'd call an ideal father. When his father died Edward, then 18 took over the family business, a construction company responsible for renovating old properties in Gotham, including the Kane Bridge, but racked up quite a lot of debt so he changed his name and skipped town. Then he showed up as Nygma, formed Enigma Electronics and get bought by LuthorCorp, only for it to go bust in the middle of its camera project, about two months before the first robbery, which was the bank that repossessed most of his assets."

"So, he's our guy or what?" Tim asks.

"Sounds like it." Babs replies. "Oh, and apparently, he's booked a room in a hotel, and been staying there since he came back to Gotham."

"Well, that's a little convenient." Gordon adds, turning to pick up his radio. "I'll go get a warrant filed, and have some boys in blue head over to-"

He looks back, as always, everyone's gone. Even Barbara.

"Well, that's just plain rude."

...

Bruce lands on a balcony, hiding in the shadows as he peers through the glass, tapping the side of his cowl helmet, scanning the area inside for any heat signature. Instead, he spots two figures, sitting back to back, slouching forward, body heat bellow twenty degrees, no detectable heart rate. Deceased, likely been so for a few hours.

He enters once he's certain no one else is inside, looking over the scene.

Bed in the corner, neatly tucked. Desk draws all shut, papers all neatly organised. They're a neat freak.

He looks around again, noticing that various objects are lying on the floor. He flips a light switch to see the room clearly, spotting a shattered lamp, vases scattered in pieces, a destroyed plant pot, and the walls littered with riddles and question marks, written in green ink.

The deceased, a man and a woman, sit peacefully with their backs turned, arms and legs tied and throats cut, their clothes stained with red. In between them sits a TV, the screen cracked slightly with the question marks painted on the side, with five more monitors on the wall behind it, all smashed except for two, showing the first two locations.

Bruce looks over the scene, imagining what happened. He was watching the hostages on camera, waiting for them to be saved or for the police to fail, when he saw Batman save them. First time, perked his interest, he continued watching. Second time, shock at them succeeding. Third time, anger, he smashed the TV. Then, when the others managed to find the location, even before the hostage had been set up an the camera was found and taken, he began to crack. He trashed the room, began writing on the walls, then killed two people.

"What're we looking at?" Nightwing asks as he enters through the window, Robin, Batgirl, and Spoiler waiting outside.

"They're in the middle of a mental breakdown. They were dangerous before, but now they're unstable. We need to find them. Fast."

The TV lights up, at first distorted by static before changing to the image of a man. Not particularly old, with brown hair neatly combed, donning an immaculate green suit and bowler hat, with his back turned to the camera.

"Riddle me this." The man starts, holding up a green pole, with a question mark shaped hook on the end. "What do you call an urban legend that isn't an urban legend?"

He turns to the camera, showing his shiny glasses as they reflect light into the camera, before then turning to face the camera fully, holding it up to his face so they can get a good look.

"You call them, an annoyance. One with a stupid, childishly idiotic excuse for a brain, but an annoyance, nonetheless. Good work on the riddles, its nice to know that some people in this cesspit of a city can actually follow simple logic, but don't kid yourself into thinking you've accomplished anything a child could do. Those riddles were simple. I figured you'd try to find my face to help with your investigation, so I'll throw you a bone. Here I am, this is what I look like."

The step back, allowing the camera to show the two hostages when they were alive, tied and bound, struggling to get free.

"Of course, when I first saw what you looked like, when I first saw you on my camera, I was surprised, to say the least. Who would think Gotham's finest were really so pathetic they needed a buffoon ho dresses like a bat to do their work. Of course, what could someone like you really do to challenge me? I am the smartest, the greatest mind of human history. I am more evolved than any of you could hope to comprehend, so to challenge me is an insult to greatness. I'd compare you to an ant trying to fight a dragon, but that would be n insult to ants."

"But, here's another chance." They turn, slashing the throats of the bound hostages. As the two die, he walks behind them, before yanking at something from off-screen, something that makes Batman's glare happen. A small child, his arms tied and his mouth bound. "Here's your motivation. Here's a little boy, called Collin, in front of him, are his now dead parents. At ten thirty five, this boy will be dead, but you have a chance to save them. A small, pathetic, almost nonexistent, chance to save them. All you have to do, is play my game."

"You're right, we do need to find them fast." Dick mutters, looking disgusted at the man's latest crime.

"Riddle me this: Gotham's orphans come from many a place, though some more than others become a disgrace. The Golden prince became a king, when a made man met his maker and took his queen with him, and Don Diego was too busy on the silver screen. Where did Gotham's good go to die? Can you solve my little puzzle Batman, or wll you let this child's blood fall onto yor hands as you bow your lonely head, finally admitting that I -The Riddler!- am your intellectual superior!"

"OK, they were a little disjointed." Nightwing comments as the TV shuts off. "I mean, the Riddler? What kind of name is that? Wait, I think I have an ida about where he is. It's actually kinda ironic-"

He looks up, only to find Bruce already gone.

"Oh no, you did NOT just do that to me!" He yells after him while following. "Do I look like Gordon to you?"

…

Edward Nygma, formerly Nashton, walks back and forward, pacing while standing on top of a rooftop, with the child chained up, struggling to get free. He hums lightly, adding a skip to his step, continuing his wait.

He turns back to keep pacing, but stops, dropping his hooked cane upon spotting Batman standing opposite, on top of an opposing building.

"…How? How did you work it out so fast? How did you solve the riddle! ?" He yells, beginning to snap at Batman's presence.

"Let the child go Edward." Batman replies, stepping forward.

"Tell me! How did you do it? You cheated! Didn't you? I know you did!"

"I'm warning you. Step away from the child." HE sharpens his glare, ready to move.

"You want the child? Take them!" The Riddler continues yelling, grabbing the child and throwing them off the rooftop.

"No!" Batman darts off as Nygma runs away, though he pauses when he sees some help.

"Don't worry, I got the kid!" Nightwing yells as he leaps up, grabbing a lamppost and swinging twice to build momentum, flying and grabbing the child mid-fall, using himself to cushion the fall.

Bruce looks down to see if he's OK, and as soon as he sees Dick motion that he's fine, he runs after Riddler, leaping over the gap and firing a grappling line, pulling himself up. He fires into the sky when he contacts the building top, leaping up and gliding down as Nygma begins climbing down a fire escape. He's tackled from the side as Batman grabs him, yanking him from the building side and placing him against the wall, hanging him off of the fie escape four stories up.

"No! You can't win! I'm supposed to win! I'm the smartest man on this sad excuse for a planet!" He screams in anger.

"No. You're nothing more than a sick, depraved excuse for human being, who just got himself a place in Arkham Asylum." He pulls him closer while almost growling. "They'll eat you alive."

"How did you do it? How did you solve all the riddles? Who are you?" Riddler, breaking down in his hands, begs for an answer, twitching in anger.

"Because, I'm Batman." He replies, hitting him in the side of the head, putting him out, before dropping him, leaving him hanging by a metal rope. Batman drops down to the floor, landing in a crouch as he looks up, spotting the others catching up.

"The kid's safe, but probably going to need tons of therapy." Nightwing tells him as he joins him, looking up as the others descend.

"Hey, you got him." Robin notes as he gets there. "Sorry we were late."

"Yeah, none of us could figure out the riddle, so O' just told us where you were." Spoiler adds. "How'd you know where he was talking about?"

Bruce just turns, walking down the street as the sun starts to rise.

"Hey, guys." Oracle speaks up through their shared com device. "You guys should probably get moving."

"Yeah, sun's coming out, better get home before Alfred starts to worry." Nightwing tells them, motioning for them to go. "We'll catch up."

As the others shrug and leave, Nightwing walks past Bruce, patting him on the back as he too leaves him alone, while Bruce walks back to where Riddler stood above, walking into the alley he tossed the child into and stepping part way in, pausing and keeling above the ground, littered with bouquets of flowers, and a photo frame holding the image of an all too familiar husband and wife.

He sits alone for a few minutes, remembering the event like it was yesterday, while crouched in the middle of the familiar alley in Park Row, the one leading to the old theatre.

…

Next time-

A Break in at the bank earns the attention of Bruce, Cass, and Barbara, but the thief proves much more cunning than the norm. The following night as Bruce continues his search for Joker and Quinn, Barb tells Cass about the first time the villain got away, the story of a woman named Selina Kyle, the first and only person to escape Bruce's capture.

…

Notes:

-There, second chapter done. Not sure how everyone would feel about the crime procedural formula, but I felt it would work. The ending felt a little cheesy, what with them ending back at Crime Alley and all, it feels a little cliché, but thought it'd work for the scene.

-Also, not sure how it would work, having Riddler be chronologically after Cluemaster, but considering that other than their similarities they're quite different characters and Riddler is somewhat changed to being a far more disturbing figure, I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

-For the riddles and locations, I consulted Wikipedia for a map on Gotham and list of locations there. Riddles I made up while writing.

-I originally had a scene with Nightwing and Spoiler working out the riddle, but it ended up making Dick look like...well, a dick. So I instead decided to remove it and have them already there.

-Speaking of that scene, I got an idea, when I was looking up locations in Gotham and saw the Sionis Steel Mill listed, for a scene at the Mill with Steph. In my personal universe thing for this I had an idea drawing slightly from War Games, but based more on a fan idea I read involving Black Mask, should he be Nolanverse styled re-imagined, as a brutal, up and coming psycho for hire, which lead me to thinking of him using a gang war between Falcone and Maroni that he helps fan the fires for to take over Gotham and tortures Steph like that, but unlike War Games, she doesn't get horribly mistreated in what can only be described as a crime against women (seriously, it wasn't enough to kill her, they had to do it via brutal torture while getting as much fanservicy shots out of it as possible. I don't particularly mind fanservice, being a generally understanding guy and all, but there's a time and a place for it, torture scenes not being either) that is one of the many things that motivated me into becoming a full fledged feminist (well, a self admitted feminist. I'd always sorta been a feminist, but never really considered myself a feminist). Instead she resists, talks back, makes jokes, etc, until nearly being eaten alive by Killer Crock when she's knocked into the water, but ends with Black Mask having to escape and Batman taking her seriously, sort of realizing that refusing to train up and coming vigilantes is more dangerous then recruiting them. But, more from that when I get round to writing an origin chapter for either her or Mask. When I saw Sionis Steel Mill's name, I got the idea of using her in the scene there, so she can experience some kind of PTSD moment there.

-With Tim and Cass, I was unsure on how to have either of them work out the riddle. I had the answer picked out and all, but I couldn't think of a logical way for them to figure it out. I didn't want either of them to appear too smart, or too stupid, and I didn't want to spend ages having Tim angst over not being smart enough to get it (since, I kinda hate Angsty Tim. Robin isn't meant to be dark and grimy, he's meant to be light hearted and fun, making a stark contrast to the setting and serve as to make Batman appear more human), but thought it wouldn't make much sense for Cass, being uneducated and still relatively new to Gotham, to be able to work out the riddle. Then I began writing the scene and it ended up looking like Tim made a big leap of logic, which I know is a frequent trope for Bat characters to somehow make crazy deductions (you know, like 'it happened at sea, see, C, C for Catwoman!' kinda deal), and I wanted to avoid that happening. You know, I didn't want them to appear crazy in their deductions, so I decided to lampshade it a little with Cass noting how crazy it is. Fortunately, I was helped with the riddles. Since they were looking for places, it meant that they could narrow down the locations more obviously, but in a way that readers may not, hopefully, get instantly so it comes off as slightly difficult. Still, makes Tim look slightly crazy there.

-And, continuing on those points, I decided to, when splitting them into groups, have Cass and Tim together while Dick and Steph work together for a couple of reasons. With Tim and Cass, I always enjoyed the way those two work together the times I've seen them work together. They have this, platonic, feel to their relationship, and they're like opposites in some way. Cass is incredibly skilled, and while smart, she's, as I said before, uneducated and as such not the greatest detective, while Tim is pretty much a prodigy who's still trying to find his own way and while capable of handling himself, and being the best staff fighter of the group, he's not as strong or skilled as Cass. With Steph and Dick, I noticed the two don't really spend much time together, compared to the others. The two have very similar personalities attitudes, and they do have some degree of respect for each other (IIRC, Steph considered him more terrifying than Bruce when he was Batman, while he was one of the few who blamed Bruce for her temporary death). I wanted to write Dick as like a big brother to the group, always giving them advice and comforting them and teasing them a little and whatnot, so I thought that I'd have him work with the one I've seen him interact with the least and treating her like a young sister.

-The kid Riddler turned into an orphan, Collin as he called him, was meant to be Collin Wilkes, Abuse, prior to being Abuse. Or, at least I decided that, originally it was going to be just a random kid, but then I realized that, as he just witnessed his parents' murder at a young age, just as Bruce did, it would be a little weird of Bruce to not keep tabs on him. Might be reintroduced later, depends if I decide to incorporate Damian at all.

-Well, that's it. Second chapter done, hopefully you enjoyed it, and as always, reviews are appreciated.


	3. Scandal from Bohemia

Hello people, here's the third chapter. Sorry for the long wait, I got kinda stuck half way through writing this, but here it is now. Introducing my take on Catwoman, who recently became one of my favourite DC characters. Not from her current series, mind you, that's just not particularly good, but from Dark Knight Rises. I have to say I was slightly disappointed at how underwhelming Dark Knight Rises was, but Selina, I was incredibly impressed by how awesome she was. She had the best lines and the best scenes, and pretty much stole the film. Anyway, enough rambling about Dark Knight Rises and its depiction of Catwoman, Enjoy:

...

"She went that way." Oracle instructs Batman as he and Batgirl chase after a cat burglar over the rooftops of Gotham City, gliding down as the figure, who seems to be having the time of their life, lands on a gargoyle, dropping off and tossing something, a bullwhip, at a neighbouring building, pulling herself at it quickly.

Batgirl lands on the gargoyle after her, only for a small device the thief dropped on it to go off, blowing up the gargoyle and knocking her off.

"Cassandra." Bruce shouts as he grabs her arm, pulling her back up. He looks at the thief, who's now a good few buildings away, as she turns back, blowing a kiss at him while smirking and leaving.

"We should hurry." Batgirl notes as she tries to get up, but limps and nearly falls, Bruce steadying her first.

"Your hurt. We should go home." He tells her, pressing a button to summon the armoured Batmobile.

"I'm fine, go on, I can still help."

"No, I'm not taking you out while you can barely walk. You're calling it a night." He insists, helping her stand as the Batmobile arrives.

**A Scandal from Bohemia**

A few minutes later, they've arrived at the Batmobile, with Bruce instantly getting out and heading for the Batcomputer.

"You were eager to call it quits on this, considering." Oracle notes, though Bruce brushes her off. "OK, anyhow, that's the third bank vault to be broken into in a month. Might be the same gal we're after."

"Noted." Bruce says while typing a few keys.

"You'll be pleased to know that Edward Nygma is now tucked away in Arkham." She adds, as camera footage from Arkham's cells is sent to them. "He's been fairly quiet, just writing more riddles and question marks. I think you broke this one."

"Can't break what's already broken." Bruce replies, while pressing something on his cowl. "Where are the others?"

"Dick's busy, Clark and Wally asked for his help dealing with some League trouble, while Tim and Steph are at his house because they needed to study. But, knowing them, they're probably out right now by themselves anyway. Anything else?"

"Yes, upload the information you have on the cat burglar we've dealing with to my cowl, and then upload the information from Case S."

"Case S? Been a long time since we looked at that. You sure this is our girl?"

"Positive."

"OK, consider it done. Anything else?"

"Don't let her follow me out." Bruce turns away, re-entering the Batmobile as Cass sits patiently next to Barbara, trying to place a wrap around her injured ankle.

"Here, let me do that." Barbara, after marking both pieces of information to be uploaded, takes the wrap from her hand, finishing what she's trying to do. "How bad is it?"

"Slightly twisted, it will heal soon." She replies, turning to the computer as she takes off her mask. "What's Case S?"

"Case S?" Barbara smiles lightly. "Case S is the first case Bruce ever failed."

"Failed?"

"The person we were after got away. It's a pretty good story actually, if you want I'll show you the case." She clicks a small icon, opening a window which displays lots of information about a robbery from the art gallery.

"_It was a good few years ago, before Bruce was, well, so Bruce like. Dick had just left for Bludhaven and was first enrolling in the police academy."_ She explains, as she reminisces about the time, as the memory of Bruce, with a expression of seriousness rather than angry brooding, leaps over a building top, landing on a small coffee place. _"I hadn't had my accident yet, so I was out in the field, as Batgirl myself."_

She leaped up after him, firing her grappling hook and swinging down, a happy smile on her face as she wears a suit considerably different than Cass's, one resembling Bruce's suit, but with more black and less grey, and a shorter cape. Following her, another figure runs up, a young teen, about 15, with dark red hair, wearing a green suit with a red armoured tunic and boots, and an accompanying face mask and cape.

"_And with Dick gone, the new boy took his place. The second Robin."_

"_Tim?" _

"_No, Jason. Jason Todd."_

The three of them perch down, as an electrics store next to it is robbed, only for the three to sneak in.

"_Who?"_

"_Remember, from the display case? Bruce doesn't like to talk about him, but Jason was a good kid."_

The thieves carry large TV's out, only for Bruce to drop in front of them. Why they pause in surprise, Barbara punches one from he side before grabbing one an flipping him over her into a third, while Jason drops onto two of them, leaping of while pulling the two's heads together and moonsaulting, hitting a third with his foot.

"_He had the same style as Dick, and he was about just short of level with Tim in the intelligence department, but he was faster. He had some of their better qualities."_

"Robin!" Batgirl-aged Barbara shouts as Jason, then-Robin, elbows one in the throat, grabbing him in a headlock as he spins out, tossing him hard against the wall, then turning and hitting a second one hard in the kneecap, breaking it.

"…_But not their best qualities. He lacked Tim's sense, Dick's heart, or either of their idealism or personality, he was too brutal, and too stubborn for his own good. Jason was the black sheep, he knew it, and it got him killed. It nearly destroyed Bruce, and its why he gave Tim and Steph such a hard time. You're lucky they came first, or he might have treated you the same way."_

"_It was Halloween, Jason's first as Robin, when we got asked for help by my dad."_

Jim Gordon looks at a bunch of photographs in a folder, showing priceless paintings, expensive jewels, golden statues, and many other treasures that are all currently missing, all from multiple cities nationwide.

"…And you think they're about to hit Gotham?" Commissioner Gordon asks the person standing in front of him as they stand on top of the GCPD rooftop. The other figure, a Fed who's currently lighting up a cigarette, hands him a second folder, this time holding information on the time of the robbery, forensic reports, and similar info on the various cases.

"They look like that. They've been stealing from specific cities in the state, and a few jobs in Kansas and Washington too; last month they stole from Bludhaven's bank, so Gotham's next." The Federal Agent replies. "Our Profilers have tried narrowing down who it could be, the profile's in the file. The FBI understands you have a, private investigation team of some kind that you regularly rely on for assistance."

Gordon cocks an eyebrow as he looks up to him.

"If you're referring to who I think you are, I'm afraid you read too many tabloids. As far as we know, 'Bat-Man' is an urban legend."

"Right, if that's how you want to keep it, it's your town, your business." The agent shrugs as he finishes his cigarette. "But, if by some chance this urban legend turns out to be less legend then you're letting on, it wouldn't be so bad for them to help."

"I'll keep that in mind. Now, its getting cold so I'd suggest we head back inside. You head on in and I'll join you in a sec." Gordon tells him as he opens the door. "I'll just finish reading these."

"Right, thanks for meeting me Gordon." The agent heads back downstairs as Gordon steps back, waiting for him to be out of earshot before turning around to face the now-present Batman.

"You hear all that?" Gordon asks as Batman takes the folder from his hand, quickly reading and memorizing every word and detail.

"Every word." He replies as he quickly finishes the first folder before moving onto the other. "The suspect's a woman. Young, mid to late twenties, very precise, near perfect in what they're doig. They're either a forensic expert, possess a genius IQ, have been stealing from an early age and perfected what they do, or some combination."

"Yeah, the Fed's are thinking that too. Anything that they didn't get?" He asks as Batman gives him back the folder.

"They have a fondness for cats, likely single, they probably work for a living but are self employed to some extent, meaning they can travel a lot. If not, they work for a job that provides them travelling benefits or calls for them to travel. They've been to Gotham before, likely committed crimes not linked by the FBI prior to moving, they look like they're coming back home."

"Hm, they didn't get all that. You got that from two folders of photos and notes?"

"Some details were just connecting the dots. The FBI likely connected some of that as well, its unlikely they'd miss so many details, unless the profiling unit handling the case weren't as competent as they should be."

"Little rude, but the Feds are more concerned with crimes that come with a body count. Considering we've had to deal with psychopaths like Joker and his blushing bride, I think its smart to say we're lucky to have a cat burglar here for a change. Beats looking at bodies all day." Gordon turns away as he starts talking. "You can slip away now, I don't have anything else."

"Thank you." Bruce nods behind him, taking his leave as Gordon counts to five then turns.

"You're welcome."

…

"A cat burglar? That it?" Jason asks impatiently, sitting crouched on a table, while Bruce sits at a computer, with Barbara leaning over his shoulder.

"They're more than that. They're able to single-handily outmanoeuvre the FBI." Bruce states. "They've had government agents tripping over their own feet chasing after them, and its unlikely they're going to trip up."

"What are we going to do?" Barb asks as she looks over the file.

"I've called for Bludhaven's crime reports, I'm going to look over their previous crimes, see what we can get."

"How are you getting-HEY!" Batgirl is interrupted as a figure grabs her from surprise, before laughing.

"Nice scream Batgirl, that's going to have all the criminals running in fear." Dick comments as he puts her down, smirking playfully.

"Glad you made it." Bruce nods to him, as she hits him in the arm.

"Why would you do that? You scared me half to death."

"Because…it scared you half to death, that kind of answers it." He replies. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you screamed so loudly, 'cept maybe Clark and Hal."

"_So he never changed?_"

"_Not at all. Its probably the best thing about Dick; no matter what happens, he's always Dick Grayson. Anyway, Dick had been investigating the robberies in Bludhaven, and when they moved to Gotham, he followed._"

"So, this is what the Bludhaven PD have on them." Dick hands Bruce a small UB stick. "Here's something interesting, they got past some security by seducing one of the guards, but when they lifted some salivia she lft on his cheek, came back without a trace of DNA. She literally used fake saliva to make us waste time looking for DNA."

"Smart." Bruce notes. "Interesting methods. We can add that to the profile, we're looking for someone with connections who can get something like fake saliva."

"They'd need access to all these places, so maybe they're connected to some architect company?" Jason suggests.

"Unlikely, young padawan, but there's other ways they could get floor plans." Dick says to him.

"True." Bruce states before searching other sources. "I'll try insurance companies."

"Well, there goes that idea." Jason mutters when it shows the insurance details of the places hit. "All different companies, with different owners."

"Do you want 'Young Padawan' to become a nickname?" Barb asks Jason, before looking up. "Check to see their transactions, they could be shell companies to one big place."

"Don't have to be patronizing." The second Robin spits a little, as Bruce brings up files on each one, showing that they are, indeed, connected by a larger parent company.

"Told ya." She smirks to Jason, who just turns away angrily.

"Batgirl." Bruce looks at her, making her stop.

"So, what we looking at, fake identities?" Dick asks. "Like, multiple names to divert attention and all?"

"Likely." Bruce notes, before loading a file on the one in charge of the parent company. "The head of the company is called James Jansen, suspected diamond smuggler. He's the one footing everything."

"Say's here he left Gotham a while ago, to set up business in Metropolis." Jason points out.

"Well." Dick smirks. "I'll get on the phone to our big blue boy scout over there. Tell him we're heading down to visit."

...

"_Like that, we were setting up a private jet and flying to Metropolis._" Oracle continued narrating, while in the story, Jason, Bruce, and Barb suit up, while Dick instead just zips up a hoody. A bright blue, frilled, and fancily decorated hoody that looks like it should be worn by Disco Stu and is being used to hide two tons of Kevlar, but still just a hoody.

"Still not found your new identity?" Barba asks, adjusting her cowl and cape.

"Not yet. Wally suggested I just use my first name, and to put 'the' in front of it since he thought it sounded funny." He replies while placing another sheet of Kevlar down his pants. "Kori found it finny, but she didn't actually get it until Roy explained it. Suffice to say, Wally got a Tamarian ass kicking."

"When do we jump?" Jason asks, cutting off their conversation as he puts on is mask and looks at a window.

"In a few minutes; just be patient, Robin." Bruce tells him.

"So, how're things with you and Kori?" Babs asks him, returning to the topic of Dick's attempt at a team.

"Great. She wants to move to the next step, but I'm just not sure if she's actually ready, you know. She's not exactly been brought up like we have, and I don't want to take advantage of that so I'm OK with moving slow."

"OK, we're directly above Jansen's mansion." Bruce states to them, cutting them off as he looks at their navigation. "Auto pilot will circle around until we need it. Jason, you take the West wing, Barbara you take South, I'll take North and East. Dick, you take out the security system on the rooftop. Jumping in five, four, three, two..."

With that, they leap. Jason flies down fast, opening his cape later than the others to get a significant speed boost, before gliding into an open window. Barb glides down with far more fluidity, moving at the safest speed she can while still moving fast enough to avoid detection. Dick, meanwhile, using a smaller, detachable foldout wing suit glides in a straight line, heading to the roof, while Brue flies slower, making sure he can see each one of them and sure they do it safely.

As Grayson descends, he takes out two small metal pipes he was carrying, dropping them in between two guarding thugs to get their attention.

"Sorry, did I drop those?" He shouts as he lands on one, taking them down before back flipping forward, grabbing the pipes and spinning to hit them in the head with it. "Let me just get that for you."

"What the-" One of the guys near the south wing wonders aloud when they hear that, but a quick strike to the back takes out any chance of them investigating it, as Batgirl makes her way past them and through the wing.

Meanwhile, in the West wing, Jason lunges at a guard, tackling them down and hitting hem in the face to knock them out. Before he can move, one of the other thugs kicks him in the ribs, knocking him off of him and onto the floor.

"Who the hell is this?" One of them asks, placing a foot above his chest and holding a gun to his head. "This ain't no Superman."

"Who care's, just shoot them in th-" Before they can finish, they're slammed into a wall by a shadow, before two batarangs fly at one of the others. Jason takes the distraction to his advantage, pulling the gunman's arm up and towards him, pulling them over so he get up an flip them over. He retaliates the previous attempt on his life by stamping on the, knocking them out.

"Didn't need your help Batgirl." Jason spits out as he moves away.

"Sure didn't look like that." She replies, rolling her eyes.

"_Personally, I much proffered the original Boy Wonder at that point._"

"What is going on out here?" James Jensen shouts into a radio com to his security when he sees two of his guards getting tossed through a window.

"James Jensen." A voice from behind him announces as Bruce's shadow looms over him. "Do not turn around. Do not shout. Do not go for the gun in your desk. Just listen."

"I'm turning off the alarm now, he won't be able to trip any silent alarm." Dick radios to him, as someone approaches behind him.

"I don't know what you want, but you're messing with the wrong people!" Jensen shouts loudly, holding his arms up.

"I know who you are, and I know of your dealings." He drops a folder in front of him, showing all the robberies. "I know you have a cat burglar in your employ. I want a name."

A gun clock is heard as Dick turns. The man approaching fires two bullets before he can dodge, though something faster, faster than a speeding bullet, intercepts and deflects them.

"Oh crap." The shooter looks at them I fear, as the being, one stronger than a locomotive, blocks his path.

"Oh crap is right." Dick laughs, getting up. "Random thug, meet Supes. Supes, meet random thug."

"Pleasure's all mine." The All American idol known to the public of Metropolis as Superman, adds as he smiles lightly, tapping them lightly on the head to knock them out. "I got your call. Odd place to meet up, Richard."

"_Wait, how did you know this was happening when you weren't there?_" Cass interrupts the story.

"_I got the details later from Dick and Bruce. The god thing about a photographic memory is, for some reason, most of us have one. Anyway._"

"I don't know what you-"

"Give me a name!" Bruce shouts, pushing them down head first into the folder. "Tell me who you hired for this."

"Please Clark, I told you, call me Dick." The original Boy Wonder insists. "Sure, it has so many funny connotations, but I've grown up with that."

"Right, well, you said something about wanting information on James Jensen? Here's what I could get from the Daily Planet database." Superman hands the younger hero a folder containing said documents. "Might be enough to force him to talk."

Then, a smashes window catches their attention, as Bruce punches through the glass so he can hold Jensen out.

"Talk. Now. I've got all night."

"…Or, you could just try threatening his life." Supes shrugs. "That always works."

"I'd talk, If I were you." Dick warns Jensen as Clark lowers the two down to his level, with the acrobat moving to crouch next to him. "you see, we don't follow the same rules as big Blue here does, and luckily, he's good enough friends that he'll let us get away with that. So talk, now."

"OK! I'll talk!" They shout at this threat, though Superman then smirking after Dick finished this threat helps. "Her name, is Patience Phillips, or at least that's the name I got. She goes by the Cat, she's not that hard to find, I swear."

"Good." Batman pulled him back in, slamming them on their own desk to knock them out, before pressing a button on his cowl to talk to the others. "We've got a name, Batgirl, check your database for the name 'Patience Phillips'. Note that its likely a fake name, but its something."

"On it Bruce." She replies, pressing a button to cause the eyes of her cowl to glow brightly as they project a holographic interface in front of her. She searches the database it brings up, finding the name.

"Yep, fake name, but a fake name she's using quite a bit." She replies, looking at a file. "Including a Drivers license, a library card, and the sign in for her hotel in Gotham. She's getting paid a lot for these jobs, she's set herself up as a socialite. Hell, you two have even been to the same parties."

"Then that's where we'll catch her."

...

"So, here's the target." Bruce states while leaning over a lit up table, Jason and Barbara kneeling over to his side, while Clark and Dick stand further away. "Patience Phillips. Fake name, but she has enough paperwork to cover that up. She's a professional, she's been doing this her whole life, and she's very good at it. We don't know where she'll hit, but we do have this." He presses a button, causing the table to project the image of a list of names. "This is Gotham's High Society Association's annual ball guest list. Barbara, your father's one of the names, as is both mine and Dick's. But, notably, so is Philips."

"So you have an invite?" Barbara asks.

"We all do, its plus one. Assuming your father attends, I'll assume that he'll take you."

"He does like to show off how much of a great daughter he has." She nods in thought.

"Then why does he take you?" Jason quips, getting an elbow to the ribcage.

"Barbara." Bruce glares.

"He started it."

"Not important. Back to the plan. Jason, Clark, assuming you're staying."

"The Flash and Wonder Woman both promised they'd look after Metropolis while I'm here." The Man of Steel responds.

"Good, in that case, you two can attend as mine and Dick's plus one's. While there, we can scout the area, until we spot Philips."

"And then we knock her out and take her away?" Jason asks, getting an eye roll from Batgirl.

"No, we wouldn't have the evidence to keep her locked up." Bruce replies. "But we do approach her. We try to befriend her, and find a way back to her hotel room, where we'll find a way to gather evidence."

"By we, you mean 'one of us', because most people don't invite large families they just met back to their hotel." Clark states.

"Well then, can that be me?" Dick raises his hand up. "Because honestly, she's not that bad looking."

"Not a time to be acting like your name suggests, former Boy Blunder." Batgirl quips.

"Now, you're just being mean." Dick glares half jokingly.

"I try."

"Can we focus already?" Bruce cuts them off, almost rolling his eyes. "They're like children. Anyway, back to the plan. Bruce Wayne will approach Mrs Philips, and play up the rich billionaire quality. As with high class thieves such as herself, she'll find this attractive and let me in so she can find a way to rob me blind."

"And then, once she lets you in for, well…" Dick starts smirking like a schoolboy before he can finish. "Once she les you in for some bow-chica-bow-wow, you can sneak around once you have some free time, find anything to link her to the robberies, get out, then later bust in as Batman-wait, no, send Babs in as Batgirl, maybe send Jason with a camera, then let them claw and scratch and-OWE!"

Dick stops himself, when a batarang is tossed at his head, while Barbara whistles innocently, with one hand pointing at Jason.

"Fine, no catfight. But maybe a little span-Owe! Stop with the batarangs! Those really hurt!" Dick complains, while Bruce continues glaring at him and Babs, and Clark just laughs lightly to himself.

"_That was fairly unprofessional. You could have knocked him unconscious with that._" Cass notes, interrupting the story.

"_It was worth it though. He could get pretty annoying at times, so it was deserved. Besides, I didn't throw them THAT hard. Anyway, so we continued plotting for a bit, then, on the day of the ball, we put our plan into motion._"

"Come on, do I have to wear this?" Jason complains, struggling as Bruce tightens his tie.

"You can't go to a blue collar event like this wearing jean shorts and a football jersey." Bruce tells him, adjusting his collar.

"Master Wayne, Barbara has arrived." Alfred speaks up as he enters the room, with Barbara, wearing a red dress, walking in shortly after.

"Thanks Alfred." Bruce and Barb say in union.

"So, how'd I look?" She asks the two.

"Presentable. Where's your dad?" Bruce replies without turning around, getting a mild annoyed look from her.

"He's waiting outside. I told him I was just coming in to speak to Dick." She explains, as the dark haired former Boy Wonder himself sneaks behind her.

"Ask and he shall appear!" He shouts in her ear, making her jump slightly. "What'd you want to talk to me about?"

"_Told you he deserved it._"

"Firstly, not cool. Second, that was more so I'd have an excuse to make sure we're all clear on what we're doing." She replies, rubbing her ear slightly.

"We've got it all covered, don't worry." Jason mutters, pulling away briefly as Bruce tries to button him up. "I can do my own damn buttons already!"

"If you could, then why haven't you?" Dick comments as he turns to his younger brother, before looking at his own suit in the mirror. "Should I go with the red shirt, or the blue one?"

"I'd say blue. You look terrible in red and black." Babs notes.

"Well, I think I look dashing." He replies. "But, if malady doth protest, I can change."

He places the blue shirt over the mirror along with the blazer jacket, before stepping back. Being the showman that he is, he leaps up, flipping forwards as he does so while undoing his buttons. He lands in front of the mirror, now holding the red shirt, which he places on the mirror while grabbing the blue shirt and blazer jacket, flipping backwards while pulling the shirt on, landing right next to her, now wearing the blue shirt.

"You know, I can teach you how to do that, but you'd have to let me watch." He adds while looking at Barbara, raising his eyebrows up and down briefly.

"Dick…" Bruce glares slightly.

"Now, where did I put the spare batarangs..." She mutters, looking through her purse.

"Barabra!"

...

Soon enough, the Batclan and two close allies arrived at the ball, entering as they do.

"Keep an eye out for Philips." Bruce tells his two sons, the genius daughter of the Commissioner, and their good Kryptonian friend, as they enter the ball, separating out once inside.

"Don't worry, I'll keep my eyes out." Dick grins back to him, while placing a hand on Babs' shoulder. "Until then, we can have some fun."

"Not a lot of fun though, I've got an early morning class tomorrow." Babs tells him, removing his arm, though still leaving off to dance with him.

"Works for me." Dick merely shrugs at that, smiling while leading her to dance.

"_Were you two...together...at this point?_" Cass asks, interrupting the story.

"_Kinda, but, it was a long time ago, don't have time to go into that. Anyway, we all just carried on with what was going on, until we could find a trace of her._" Oracle continues, as in the past, Dick and Barbara continue the dance, breaking off after a while to get a drink.

"Since when could you dance?" Barbara asks him, as he merely smirks happily while getting the two drinks.

"Oh, you know Bruce, always wants us prepared for everything." Dick quips. "Even in the case of a villain who can make people spontaneously sing and dance."

"Ah, I see, sounds like Bruce." Barbara laughs. "Well, I better go see how my dad is, so I'll see you later."

"Right, tell him I said hi." Dick waves her off, watching he walk away as Clark approaches him.

"So, I heard you've moved to a new city." Clark asks him, leaning next to him as he gets his own drink.

"Pretty much, yeah. Trying to deal with Bludhaven." Dick explains. "It's like Gotham's drug addicted younger brother, so I've got my work cut out for me, just trying to find a new identity."

"Huh, well, if you need a name, there's the names of that old Kryptonian story I told you about, Knight-Wing and Fire-Bird." Clark suggests.

"Huh, quite like the sound of that, actually." Dick thinks the name over. "Nightwing, kinda badass sounding. Might go with it."

"Wll, if it doesn't work out, you could try befriending a local intrepid reporter. They're always willing to pick out names."

"Ha, good point. How is Lois anyway?"

"She's good; actually, she's more than good, she's amazing. I swear, I know its cheesy, but I've got to be the luckiest guy in the world. I've, kinda been thinking of asking her to marry me."

"For real?" Dick raises an eyebrow, a smile appearing on his face. "Wow, Clark, that's, that's awesome to hear. You two are great together, I'm really happy for...wait a sec." Dick trains off, looking over Clark's shoulder as he spots the ace they're looking for, before pressing into a hidden earpiece. "Bruce, target spotted, wearing a purple dress, heading to the bar."

"On it." Bruce responds, spotting her once Dick finishes his shot description, and heading to the bar himself.

"I'll have what she's having, let me cover both." Bruce tells the barman, handing him a roll of money.

"Sure thing Mister Wayne." The bartender replies, handing the two an alcoholic beverage each.

"Hm, how thoughtful." The woman grins to him, taking the drink. "You always pay for other people's poison?"

"Only the ones who don't need it to look as stunning as you do?" Bruce replies, all without even touching his drink. "Sorry, that sounded far less corny in my head."

"I'm sure it did. Still, thoughtful gesture, unless you have some other motive." 'Patience' comments, supping her drink. "This isn't your attempt to get me drunk or anything, is it?"

"Well, that does make things a hell of a lot easier." Bruce laughs a little at that. "Bruce Wayne."

"Patience, Patience Philips." She replies with a lightly manner, shaking his hand.

"Patience? Unusual for a name."

"Yeah, my parents wanted me to be a wallflower. I decided I'd rather be me."

"Good choice." Bruce grins a little. "So, how many drinks do I have to buy to make things more fun?"

"That depends on what you have in mind, Miser Wayne." She smirks back. "Either way, not a lot."

...

Within the hour, they're back at her place, mouths together as she undoes his tie and starts removing his buttons.

"Nice place." Bruce comments when they finally pull away.

"Its only temporary, just while I'm in Gotham." She explains while walking to her kitchen. "Want some wine?"

"I'll take a glass." He calls back, sitting on her chair as she returns, placing a wine bottle by the coffee table.

"I'll just freshen up, make yourself at home." He tells him as she leaves the room once more, while he waits until the second she's out of ear shot before getting back up and searching the apartment.

"Didn't take you very long." Jason mutters from the kitchen, having copied his mentor's old trick and slipped in from the window. "Any idea what we're looking for."

"Plans, stealing tools, anything." Bruce replies, opening up some draws underneath a small mirror, before noticing something: A small bottle of transparent liquid, one he happens to know becomes visible, and almost glows, under a UV light.

"Pass me your UV torch." He tells his ward, who does just that, before Bruce scans the mirror, finding that its been used to map out an upcoming heist.

"What's she planning?"

"Gotham Art gallery's new Sherlock Holmes display. She's planning to steal the paintings."

"Huh, thought she stole jewels."

"This painting in particular." Bruce seemingly ignores him while pointing to a rough sketch of the target painting. "This one, with a jewel encrusted frame. Its worth millions."

"A jewel encrusted frame? That's just showing off."

"Target time is this Sunday, at midnight." Bruce notes, before handing him back the torch.

"Bruce?" Patience calls, opening the bedroom door and looking over, just as Jason slips away, and Bruce holds up his phone.

"Sorry, just got a call. My ward, Jason, he got into some trouble, need to bail him out." Bruce apologizes, grabbing his tie and jacket. "Sorry, I'd love to continue this, but, time to put on my responsible hat."

"Oh, I get it. Too bad, I guess." She sighs. "Well, I'll see you when I can."

"I promise, next time I get the chance, I'll call, and contrary to popular belief, I'm not one of those guys that don't do that."

"I'll hold you to that." She smiles, kissing him on the cheek as he does up his buttons and heads out.

...

"...and you're positive this is the target?" Commissioner Gordon asks Batman as he, Robin, and Batgirl make their way into the art gallery, two hours before the heist is supposed to go down.

"Positive." Batman replies quickly, scanning the area as they make their way in, with several patrol cars waiting outside.

The group make their way through the complex maze of an art gallery, until finally, they get to the Sherlock Holmes exhibit, ready to spring a trap.

And find the painting already gone.

"What in the…" Gordon mutters, as he deactives the security system so he can look at the stand where the painting was held. "No alarm set off, no sign of break in, no nothing. How did she slip in and get out without leaving anything behind."

"She left something." Batgirl calls to the others, picking up a small bit of paper, one with the message 'sorry 'bout that, Bat-Boy, had to leave early, you know how it is', complete with a lipstick mark with cat ears and a tail drawn around it.

"She's good." Bruce mutters, taking it all in for a moment. "She's really good."

...

"OK, so we screwed up, its no big deal." Babs tries to tell the two as they return to the Batcave, removing their cowls as they do so.

"It kinda is, we just got played, badly." Jason complains, climbing out of the car while Bruce storms off without saying a word, discarding his cape, cowl, and belt.

"We didn't 'get played', she moved faster than we thought. We'll get her next time." Babs responds with a bit of optimism, the two seemingly ignored by Bruce, who enters the hidden elevator up to the mansion while tossing away the top half of his armoured suit.

Bruce rolls hi head to either side while rubbing the bridge of his nose, annoyed and broody following this turn of events.

"It was a nice panting, don't you think?" He hears to his side, turning to se 'Patience', waiting for him on his large couch, looking at some images of the painting in question, depicting the time Sherlock Holmes crossed paths with Irene Adler. "My fencer thought so too, before he shipped it off to his client and wired the money into my account."

"You..." Bruce mutters, unable to really speak at this point out of sheer surprise.

"Wonder how I did it?" She asks coyly, a proud grin on her face like a Cheshire cat. "I only marked the time I was to meet my fencer, didn't mark what the time was for, or anything else. I heard stories about you, about the 'Dark Knight Detective', giving superstitious crook a beating now and then, and I knew, the second I stepped foot in Gotham, that if you were real, I'd need to plan for that, and that included putting my plans in a hidden, but easily accessible location, with just enough info that you'd get an idea but missing a few key pieces to lead you down the wrong way. It helped that you pretty much handed me your secret identity when you came up to me."

"Sex craving playboy not a good enough cover for you?" Bruce asks, circling the sofa while keeping an eye on him.

"Hardly. Sex craving playboys usually have more fun and mischief in their eyes. Yours? All I see is tranquil grief and anger, like the kind you see in a bat. So, Bruce Wayne, Batman, whatever you want to call yourself, your move."

"I'm going to drag you to Commissioner Gordon and dump you on his lap, and tell him exactly what you just told me."

"Well, that's hardly a way to treat a lady." She laughs a bit, getting up from her seat. "Or did your mother never teach you how to treat girls proper?"

Bruce retorts by trying to kick her in the face, a move she effortlessly dives out of the way, circling around him and striking his back, shoving him forward.

"Atta boy, your mother was a great lady, I can tell that. Didn't convince you girls were so soft we'd break from one punch eh?" She continues while constantly smirking. "Too bad she didn't teach you we can hit back too."

"Quiet." Bruce tells her, swinging back and striking at her, only for her to leap back, landing on top of a display case holding a suit of armour.

"Well, that was rude. Clearly your dad didn't do something right there."

"I said shut up!" He yells, grabbing his coffee table and swinging it at her, an attack she dodges, but shows she should probably stop toying with him.

"My bad, probably should've figured they'd be a sore spot for you." She apologizes, in her own way. "Still, great set of arms, that looked heavy."

"If you don't leave within the next five minutes I will show you exactly why half this city is terrified of me." He warns her, in no mood for her banter.

"Well, I'll take that as a hint." She smirks, slipping out of an open window. "Sorry about the mess there Mister Wayne, Mister Batman, whatever you proffer."

Batman merely glares, making her give him a thumbs up gesture, before slipping out.

It takes him a second to realize he could've probably gone after her, but decides its not worth it. Another battle for another day.

But then a minute later he realizes that his wallet and car keys are both gone, as is his Mercedes. _Son of a bitch!_

...

"So, she beat Bruce?" Cass asks, back in the modern time.

"Pretty much. We've been trying to track her movements, but she's slippery to get a hold of."

"Why is this relevant... to the case at hand?" Cass wonders, titling her head to the side.

"Because that woman you guys ere chasing? We think that's her." Oracle explains simply.

Meanwhile, across town, Bruce continues to chase after this woman after he once again catches up to her.

She leaps off a building, swinging her whip at a lamppost and pulling herself up, only for Bruce to swing in, grabbing the whipe as it flies, curling it around his arm and pulling her onto the rooftop, before wrapping her with his arms and pinning the two to the roof.

"Scared to let me go again huh?" 'Patience' taunts, looking towards him. "It's alright, you can get up, I'm not running."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Honest, I was just leading you to see something." She claims, motioning behind him towards the site that was once host to the Gotham ball, until it was blown up in one of Joker's many schemes. "Sure was pretty once, don't you think?"

He mutters something to himself, before getting up and letting her stand, allowing him to realize that, similar to him, she's now sporting a fancy, dark coloured and animal themed ensemble, this time resembling a cat.

"Like it? I have to thank you for this. I got the idea from the number you wore when you tried to catch me in the act."

"You were stupid to come back here, 'Philips'."

"Actually, its Kyle. Sel-"

"Selina Kyle, the highest sought after on the FBI's most wanted list who hasn't taken a life." Bruce interrupts her. "Codenamed 'the Catwoman' by the FBI."

"Well, I figured you might as well know my name, considering I know both yours, but I guess I didn't need to bother. How'd you find it out?"

"I kept tracking their investigation into you. I didn't tell any of my team, I wanted to bring you in on my own."

"Well, Sweatie, hate to break it to you, but that's a little creepy. You sure could do with getting laid sometime."

"You're still wanted on multiple accounts of theft, not to mention breaking and entering, vandalism, and stealing my car."

"Still not going to let that one go huh?" She smirks, tossing him the keys to the car. "Its in a red storage container by the docks, along with the two million I earned from that job. I kept it there in case I ever needed a ar and some money while passing through these parts, but hopping off rooftops is too much fun."

"You're still a wanted woman."

"I figured as much, and had it not been for the fact the thought of jail bores me so much, I'd probably volunteer to let you lock me up, just to get these pesky arrest warrants off my tail."

"You're not getting away with what you've stolen."

"Do you ever smile when not trying to impress the public eye? You really have a wonderful smile, you should try showing it of more." Selina looks to him with a slight smirk, though he doesn't recuperate. "Well, like I was saying, I don't want to go to jail, and I don't want to have all these arrest warrants holding me back. So, how about me make a deal?"

Batman stays silent, a que for her to continue.

"There's a lot of people in this city, people not looking to do good, and people I make a career out of working with. I can give you names, locations, plans, anything you want, and in exchange, I want you to look the other way while I hang out here. Sound interesting to you?"

"I'll think about it." Bruce replies a minute or so later, getting ready to swing off with his grappling gun, until he realizes she stole it, and his utility belt, at some point while they were pinning each other down.

"Sorry, force of habbit." She grins sheepishly, handing him it back.

"Why Gotham, anyway?" Bruce asks her, while putting the belt back on.

"I got business here I need to take care of." She responds simply, making Bruce nod and, after deciding not to press for more, wings away as intended, while she slinks back to her safe house, slipping in through a window.

She takes off her mask and knocks on the side of the wall, announcing she's arrived.

"Holly? I'm back." Selina calls, as a young girl walks out from one of the bedrooms in the small apartment, sporting some fancy looking clothes while putting on some earrings.

"I thought you'd be back soon." Holly waves to her. "Good timing, if I didn't leave soon I'd end up being late. Thanks for lending my these clothes and these earrings."

"Keep them, don't fit me anymore anyway." Selina tells the younger girl, before hearing the sound of the 'business' she mentioned to Bruce as it starts to cry.

"OK, babysitting time is over, your baby to deal with." Holly tells her as she heads to the exit. "I'll see you later Selina."

"Right, be good and be safe out there." Selina calls after her as she closes the door, before heading into the room to which crying was coming from. "Helena? Sweatie, mommy's here."

...

Next time:

While out patrolling and goofing off with Spoiler, Tim goes missing, and the Bat Family goes into Red Alert mode looking for him. As everyone's buttons are pressed, and every ally they can get a hold of come n to help, reality hits them hard when all the evidence points to one man being responsible: Has the Joker one it again? Has he killed another Robin?

...

Notes:

-Kind of different from the last chapter, in that its based during an earlier time of Bruce's career. I was thinking a while ago when working on plans for this, to make it somewhat more fluid when it comes to story structure. I was thinking that, as I wanted to focus on two main aspects of Batman, crime fighting, which is why I try to write it like a police procedural with superheroes, and on the Bat family as a whole, which I figured the best way to do so would be to focus on every time period at some point, which is why I had this chapter done.

-Note, when I mentioned the Justice League it was Wally's name, not Barry's, which was dropped. Mostly because I grew up with Wally as the Flash and I'm still yet to forgive DC for dropping him, so he's the Flash in my new universe. Well, at this point. I will have a Justice League fic up eventually that will have Barry as the founding Flash, but have Wally take over after the first arc.

-I was originally going to have a Dick-as-Robin story for this, but decided to use Jason instead and have Dick in the process of setting up his Nightwing persona. I figured it would work better. I can always have the 'Holy Relevant-Adjective, Batman!' bit I wanted to put in a later chapter. Speaking of this I'd imagine Dick's hoody during the time he was in Metropolis as being a hooded version of his infamous 'disco suit', the one he wore when he first became Nightwing. Sort of a small mythology gag.

-Yes, Selina's fake name, Patience Philips, is indeed a nod to the god awful Hale Berry Catwoman film. That's the only reference I'll make, now let's never speak of that again.

-The Title, as well as the plot, was basically a big shout out to one of the most famous Sherlock Holmes stories, _A Scandal in Bohemia_, detailing how Holmes got beat by a girl, basically. It's the second Holmes story I've read, and my second favourite (I personally proffer the one where he leads a Klansmen to think his brothers are gunning for him, making them stay out at sea (or, at least I'm pretty sure that's how it ends, the ending felt a little open ended and some summaries I've read said that he doesn't catch the culprit)). I sort of envision Selina as a modern day Irene, and see her dynamic with Bruce as similar to how Sherlock and Irene are often depicted in outside media.

-I decided to go ahead and include a baby Helena Kyle/Wayne. Unlike most depiction, she's not Bruce's daughter, as it wouldn't really fit my timeline of events, and I felt that, when Bruce and co inevitably discover her existence and interact with her, it would be more heart-warming for him to at fatherly to a child h doesn't actually have any genetic or legal obligation to do so, and I decided o make Catwoman single mother because, ell, single mothers are the unsung heroes of the modern world, ho raise kids as well as they can despite being shunned by rich fat cats and the intolerant. Helena Bertinelli is still in existence and will be Huntress, unlike the DCU reboot that decided that her tenure meant noting (at least she was lucky enough to get acknowledgement, Wally, Steph, and Cass would be SO jealous of that!), but yeah, Catwoman's got a daughter.

-So, finally got this done, and hopefully it won't take a year to get the next chapter done. Note to readers who also read my other stories, my X-Men Evolution fic will be the next updated, and its had a slight name change: Its now just called 'Uncanny X-Men Evolution', as I decided that sounded better than the current name and was more indicative; after all, it was a written fanfic, not a comic. But, it will be updated when I can.


End file.
